Why Gambling Should Be Legal Essay
What is gambling? According to www. dictionary. com gambling is taking a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit. Gambling has been around for centuries and has been dated way back to 1492. People have been gambling in America ever since America was found. There are numerous underground cards clubs and casinos all over the country and in major cities. People gamble on everything: sports evens, dice, and cards. Even though people gamble every day in the United States, it is still illegal.
People do gamble everyday, so why is it not legal.
A vast majority of the American people had supported the legalization of sports betting ( 55% felt that betting on sports should be legal, only 35% opposed ), not to mention that the president himself is a former owner of casinos. Therefore, this change in the federal government’s approach to. Legalizing gambling is thought to bring in many bad things along with it. People are going to continue to gamble whether it is legal or not. Making gambling illegal does more harm than good. If we legalize gambling, we would be helping our economy and those in need.
Why Should We Legalize Gambling
Gambling should be legalized. There are tons of ways to gamble. Anybody can pretty much gamble or make a bet on anything. Some major games though are cards. People play games such as poker or blackjack. Also, betting on horses and dogs has been around quit a bit. The biggest form of gambling though is the lottery. Most of these games and events are already legal such has the track and the lottery, but why are regular games like poker and blackjack illegal? Why gamble? What good can come from gambling? Gambling can help our economy by keeping money here in out on state.
“Proponents say it keeps money in the state” (Legalized Gambling 2). Another huge reason on why gambling should be legalized in the fact that it would draw a huge number of tourism to our state. “It could also attract potential tourist to the area. Tourist with money to spend, not just in the casinos, but at local restaurants, hotels and shops” (Legalized Gambling 2). This statement not only proves that it would bring tourist, but also that the local area would thrive as well because tourist would be spending money at other places such as hotels and restaurants. It would make the state richer. Why not gamble?
According to the Legalized Gambling article in paragraph three some people say that gambling would increase crime, which in return would mean would need more police and more money spent on the police. “Many feel that casinos will cause an increase in crime which means increased money spent on police” (Legalized Gambling 3). Many say it would cause people to become addicted, and the homes and families of these people would be ruined. “Some also believe that more Arkansans will develop gambling addictions which will lead to decay in the homes of these people and a general decay of family life in Arkansas” (Legalized Gambling 3).
Although this article in referring to Arkansas, the points are very relative to our state of Pennsylvania. If gambling were legalized, there would be more jobs. Jobs are very important especially now in our society. Hundreds of people do not have jobs. Jobs will be open for new casino card dealers for example. More transportation will be need for people to get to the casinos, and since there will be more people coming we will need transportation to other areas as well. Also, the local businesses like hotels and restaurants will be booming.
As a result, more jobs will be needed to up keep these facilities. Not only will gambling supply more jobs, but also the local taxes will go down. All gambling winnings are taxable. When a person wins the World Series of Poker, the winnings are taxed. Also, the casinos will have to pay taxes, which will result in lower taxes such as school taxes and so forth. This will keep most of the money in the state as well. Over in Jersey, gambling was one of the main sources of income for the state back in 1857.
“Legal gambling has become a $10 billion industry in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and the states, which are collecting $500 million a year in gambling revenues, are becoming more dependent on it to balance their budgets” (Janson 1). Back in 1857 the economy was bad but gambling didn’t even become stunned by the economy. “Despite a clouded economy, wagering is up in all three states in each of the last three years in almost every form of legalized gambling” (Janson 2). Back then it was making a killing. We can only imagine what it is bringing in now. Gambling is the sole reason to go to Las Vegas.
Who would want to go a desert on vacation where temperatures can get into the hundreds? Gambling is the only thing that is going for Las Vegas. With out gambling no one would go, and look at how much money Las Vegas is bring in off of the tourists coming from all over the world, all because of gambling. So when people do gamble where does the money go? Where gambling in legal money gets divided up. “84% returned to the public, 15% for commission, and 1% breakage or surplus” (Freeman 167). This shows that at the racetracks 84% go back to the people who are gambling, 15% goes to the brokers, and 1% is the breakage or surplus.
That is how the money works in the racetracks. Each state deals with the money differently though. “These percentages include the deductions for monies for both Track and State. Each state has laws specifying the division of this percentage between Track and State. Some states use a sliding scale. The higher the volume of business, the higher the percentage paid to the state” (Freeman 166). As shown here the state taxes are included. Also, commission is used in all racetracks, and this provided jobs for many people. Another good reason why gambling should be legalized is because people can make a ton of money.
If people would be smart about things they could maximizes their profits. These people are called pros. Professional poker players, like Johnny Moss, make all their money from playing cards. Gambling, if done right, can be easy pickings for people. “Gambling is a calculated technique for making money” (Thompson 27). Basically this is saying that if people are not stupid with their money that they will win. For example, if a person is playing Texas Hold’em, a type of poker, then they should only play superior starting hands like Ace King, or Ace Ace.
The reasoning behind this is because these starting hands have the best odds or chances of winning. By calculating odds people can beat the game. As mentioned before, gambling can be beat. A good way to make money is to play games where the people have control. Luck can only take a person so far. In casinos, most of the games, like the slot machines and roulette, have odds favoring the house or the casino. It is wise to stay away form these games. Instead, people should play poker or blackjack, where there is a little more skill involved. Luck can only take a person so far.
According to Basil Nestor “Luck has an influence, but skill has a more pronounced effect” (13). This means in the long run, skill will produce more money. In card games there is a rake. The rake is a percentage of the winnings that goes to the house or casino. This is how the casino makes money of the game. For example, if a person just won a $100 pot in poker and the casino rakes ten percent, then that person would only get $90. Another nice thing about casinos is that the more a person gambles, the more they will get. Casinos always give out free things.
For the high rollers, or people that spend a lot of time and a lot of money gambling, casinos usually give them free rooms and free tickets to shows. If a person is doing well, the casino may give them free food or free money to play with. There reason for this is to keep that player there. Statistically, the house or casino has better odds, meaning that the chances of a person winning are lower than even. So, eventually the casino will win. So, they try to keep that player there for as long as they can because they think the odds will catch up with them, but as mentioned before there are ways around that
Gambling will help our state out tremendously. The state could use more jobs. Some taxes will go down. It just seems to be a no brainer. Why would we not legalize gambling? People say that it will ruin homes and lead to addiction. Well, for all those people that are concerned about that, don’t gamble. No one will twist your arm to gamble. Gambling will bring so much to the state of Pennsylvania. All the tourist will need a place to stay. That’s where our local hotel and motels come in. The business will increase drastically. All the tourists will need a place to eat.
Our restaurants will serve that purpose. With all this, all these businesses will need to up keep with everything. So, as a result, there will be more jobs available. The casinos will also cause taxes to go down. With all the money the state will be receiving from the casinos, they won’t need to tax the people of the state. We already have the lottery and bingo and, these are forms of gambling. How come the lottery and bingo are exactable to our society and games like poker and blackjack are not? Is there that much of a difference? Gambling will do more good than bad.
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Gambling should be legalized. (2017, Apr 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/gambling-should-be-legalized-essay
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Why Gambling Should Be Legal
Did you know that 40% of all problem gamblers started gambling before they were seventeen? Or that problem gambling causes the most suicides out of all the recognized addictions? Even with these facts, the most startling truth is that not one federal dollar, out of the billions collected in gambling taxes, has been spent to treat or help problem gamblers. Gambling is the activity or practice of playing at a game of chance for money or other stakes. Activities that are considered gambling are sports and race bets, lotteries, games like blackjack and poker, and casino games like slots and roulette. Bingo and raffles are technically gambling, but there are no major concerns about them, so they are not included here. Gambling has been legalized by many states, but just because it is does not make it right. Even though gambling is legal, it should not be because of its harmful economic, governmental, and social effects.
There are many detrimental economic effects of gambling, but there are two major ones: it siphons money from other industries, and states attempt to use lotteries to boost income. Gambling takes money from consumers that would otherwise be spent in an important industry or charity. Instead, it is essentially thrown away in hopes of getting rich quick. The removal of money from other industries often causes businesses to go bankrupt, therefore creating more unemployed people. You could argue that casinos create jobs, but those jobs do not make enough money to really support a family. The other economic problem that gambling creates is the use of lotteries. States typically use lotteries to make more money, but it is nowhere near as effective as other methods that are in use. The state makes 40% of the money that is put into lotteries, while they make 99% of the money that goes into taxes. Also, sources say that since the poor buy so many more lottery tickets than everyone else, the lotteries have become a tax on the poor and economically disadvantaged. The economic effects may be bad, but the governmental and social effects are far more hurtful.
There are a few different damaging effects that gambling has on the government, but they fall into two categories: the government’s role and illegal activity. The government’s role in gambling is not what it should be. Drugs and gambling are both known to be self-destructive, yet drugs are banned and gambling is legalized? To the people that are compulsive gamblers, gambling is a drug to them, so it should be illegal like all other drugs. The other poor role the government has in gambling is that the government gets a cut of the profits from it in the form of taxes. As it was mentioned earlier, the poor and lower-middle class gamble more, so it is essentially a tax on the poor. Illegal activity is another damaging governmental effect of gambling. Since betting on sports and races are legal, it has become far easier for organized crime to make money off of fixed sporting events and racing. From a sports standpoint, it makes “point-shaving” scandals a potentially larger issue, and can take away from the integrity of the game. Additionally, in areas where gambling is legalized, illegal gambling increases. Since people think it is okay to gamble, they now go to an illegal gambling location so that their winnings, if any, are not taxed by the government. The destructive governmental and economical effects of gambling are horrible, but the social effects are the worst of all.
The harmful social effects of gambling are it forces the poor to stay poor, compulsive gamblers bring massive problems, and gambling can ruin lives and families. Gambling at casinos and in lotteries have terrible odds of winning, but the poor, who desperately need the money, try time and time again in hopes of getting lucky to pull out of their economic problems. However, they rarely win, and the amount of money that they pour in forces them stay poor. Even if you are not poor and you start to gamble constantly, you will become poor very quickly. Another harmful social effect of gambling is the presence of compulsive gamblers. Compulsive, or problem, gamblers are people who are addicted to gambling. Gambling is a drug to them, and they cannot stop gambling, no matter the consequences. A study showed that most compulsive gamblers started during their teen years, and that they are in close to $80,000 in debt. Because of the staggering amount of debt they are in, they are a huge burden to their families. The last harmful social effect of gambling is it destroys families. The amount of debt that a compulsive gambler gets into puts way too much strain on the rest of the family to help him or her out of debt. If you are married to a compulsive gambler, it is like being married to a hard-core drug addict, they are forced to throw away money to satisfy their addiction. Unfortunately, sometimes the debt is too much, and the spouse will divorce, shattering the family. The social effects of gambling are the worst, but all the effects of gambling are awful.
Unfortunately for us, gambling is legal in almost every state, allowing these hurtful effects to exist. Even though gambling is legal, it should not be because of its harmful economic, governmental, and social effects. If you are considering gambling sometime, think about what you are supporting, and how it could ruin your life.