Legalizing Gambling

The growing industry of gambling creates revenue from taxes, but is it really profitable? Smith-Christopher claims “the total amount accounts for less than a quarter of the gambling industry revenues nationwide each year.” It can be said that gambling can help economic progress, “Nearly half of all tribal gaming enterprises earn less than $10 million in annual revenue, and one-quarter earn less than $3 million each year. On the other end of the spectrum, about 40 tribal casinos (or about 1 in 10) take in two-thirds of all Indian gaming revenues” (Smith-Christopher). The economic benefits that gambling creates may outweigh the addictions it may create. Walker claims, “As gambling expands, the gambling industry and government are beginning to

III. Third, there are solutions to help solve the problems that come from not legalizing casino gambling.

Gambling has been around for quite some time. Initially outlawed, it became legal in 1931 and it has been an interesting road from there. The ringing of slot machines, winning at bingo or poker has become an addiction of sorts, to people of different races and cultures. And Native Americans have not been left out either.

From this study the economic impact of gambling helped unemployment to decrease. People got off welfare and got a job, then bought health insurance. The Legalizing of gambling would help the creation of new jobs which would drop the unemployment rate that would give more revenue to the state which is a positive effect.

In 2012 commercial casinos earned revenues of $37.3 billion, while Indian casinos had revenues of $27.9 billion. The American commercial casino industry directly contributed $8.6 billion in taxes and directly employed over 332,000 people in 2012. Whereas, Native American casinos are exempt from federal taxes, but individual Native Americans aren’t exempt from taxes. As a result, the Indian casino industry also contributes tremendous resources to the government. Although, it’s quite complex to calculate a direct comparison with commercial casinos. Casino City provides the only comprehensive annual report on the Indian casino industry and their report includes other variables, such as nongaming operations. Casino City concluded that Indian casinos employed, directly and indirectly, more than 679,000 people in 2012. That report also concluded that Indian gaming contributed $9 billion in taxes and revenue-sharing payments to federal, state, and local governments in the same

Over the past 100 years people have gambled on horse races, boxing matches, and card games. It has been in human nature to put a bet on a competative game to try and win money. Gambling today has become even more prominate in our society. All over the internet you can find cites to wager on a game or play poker. The problem people gambling on the internet is the revenue goes to companies who do not live in this country. Creating a place to gamble in all cities would create more revenue for our country. Furthermore, it would create more jobs and then populate smaller cities. To help out this economy we need to legalize gambling in the United States.

The concept of gambling has been around since the 1600’s when the original thirteen colonies had their own individual lotteries where people viewed gambling as a “civic responsibility” to play. These lotteries helped establish multiple universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and William and Mary. Gambling has been legal and then banned several times in three different eras; the first era in the 1600’s to mid-1800’s, the second in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, and finally the mid 1900’s to present day where some types of gambling remain legal. Throughout multiple decades, people have constantly bickered back and forth stating their opinions on what defines gambling, and if it should be illegal or legal. More importantly, all types of gambling should be legalized in the United States since multiple types of gambling already exist and are considered legal, it’s improper to permit some and leave others out. Moreover, gambling stimulates the economy by bringing tourism to the area and creating jobs for those in need of one, as well as, making revenue from taxes, benefiting the state and local government.

Gambling is seen as a psychological problem affecting millions of Americans across the country. It is estimated that 20 million Americans have or could develop gambling problems, and about half of these are young adults. Gambling is sometimes connected to spouse and child abuse, bankruptcy, mental breakdowns, substance abuse, theft, divorce, and suicide. It is estimated that people are twice as likely to be a problem or pathological gambler if a casino is within 50 miles of their home. Citizens will also experience alcohol-related problems, as the casinos will be permitted to sell or provide complimentary alcoholic beverages during all hours that they operate (Amend. 5, Sect. 10E).

Every week between August and February, millions of average American citizens break the law. During this time, millions of people wager billions of dollars on football games. This culminates in February with the Super Bowl where more money is wagered than on any other sporting event in the world. The vast majority of people who place these wagers live in states where sport’s gambling has long been illegal. Even those seemingly innocent NCAA office pools or friend to friend sports wagers are against the law in most counties across the state.

Specific Purpose: To argue against how gambling should be allowed in all cities because it helps generate more income, allows for more jobs and helps struggling cities.

Short run consequences from this solution would be downsizing thousands of workers relying on the gaming industry, which will in turn impact the economy by affecting the revenue of the government through the taxes collected. Long run consequences may be the potential for consumers to re-enter the black market to invest in less expensive gambling, or continue to use grey market websites. The priority for a solution to prevent over consumption in gambling would be to protect society because the third-party costs will affect the macro viewpoint, which would be the government of Ontario or Canada, if local economies collapse from bankruptcy. Society will be negatively affected if the working class decreases productivity resulting in job losses

The world as we know it today continues to evolve in ways we couldn’t have imagined before. Technology has taken humanity a long way with inventions like the computer, the modern car, and the cell phone. All of these have enabled us to live our lives much more conveniently than our predecessors. With the technologies that we have now, the way we entertain ourselves has evolved too. Casino gambling has become a large part of the way people have fun and even make a living. It’s one of the reasons why Las Vegas became a successful city and the entertainment capital of the world. Back then though, things were different and casino gambling was considered immoral and looked down upon. Today, it has been accepted in most communities and continues to extend its reach on a daily basis. The perspective on casino gambling has changed because people saw what a prosperous industry it could be and because perspective changes over time.

Gambling in the words of McLean and Yoder (2005) "means risking something of value, usually money, on an event that has an unknown outcome." In the opinion of the authors, gambling can assume various forms including but not in any way limited to "casino games, betting on sporting events, playing bingo, buying raffle tickets, and playing lotteries" (McLean and Yoder, 2005). Over time, gambling has grown in popularity with the same being legalized in many jurisdictions across the world. However, those opposed to gambling and the legalization of the same continue to cite various reasons in an attempt to backup their assertions. One of the reasons cited by those opposed to gambling according to McLean and Yoder (2005) is that the costs of gambling easily outweigh the benefits associated with the same. This argument advances the idea that the interests of the society override those of an individual. Thus the

People may think of the benefits of legalizing gambling first, but there come clear distinct problems that could be the result of the legalization. It is without question that there would be instances of players betting on various games whether it be on games in their league or others, and would give the leagues another giant problem to monitor of their players. There have already been clear problems with a variety of players in different sports like John Daly in golf, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley all infamously having gambling problems, which could have been much worse if sports betting were legal in their time. To make it worse, the leagues show a blind eye to the gambling that is going on currently, and has gone on for some time, within the teams and organizations and basically no repercussions being put on the team and players. There have also been situations where people like Tim Donaghy and Pete Rose and infamous for their gambling habits on games that they were involved in with Rose being a player, and Donaghy a referee. This brings the largest problem that could be involved with the possibility of games outcomes being influenced by players or referees connected with possible situations like Tim Donaghy found himself in during the 2004 NBA season, when he was put under federal investigation for betting on games. Between that and the Pete Rose ongoing situation with the MLB, those are considered two of the worst scandals in sports history along with the most

It is causing otherwise good citizens to enter crime, in order to pay off gambling debts.