Should Gambling Be Legalized?

3928 Words8 Pages

Should Gambling Be Legalized?

Over the past twenty or so years, great wealth and improved economic and

social conditions have been promised to the communities that have embraced

legalized gambling. However, with twenty years of experience it is time to

look back and analyze whether this is true or not.

It could easily be said that gambling is as American as apple pie.

Gambling has shaped American history since its beginning. Lotteries were used

by The First Continental Congress to help finance the Revolutionary war. Many

of our founding fathers, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George

Washington, have sponsored private lotteries. It has been said that "Our

founding fathers were just numbers guys in wigs" At one time baseball would

have seemed to be the American pastime. This is not so now. In recent years,

the attendance at casinos has nearly doubled the attendance at all major league

baseball games, with close to 130 million people visiting casinos every year.1

With so much money at stake, the average gambler does not stand a chance

against this big business. The casinos go to every length to analyze what makes

a gambler bet, stay longer, and loose as much money as possible.

Gamblers who come to casinos with the intention of winning money are

habitually disappointed. As casino crime lord, Meyer Lansky's universal

gambling truth states; "Gamblers never win, the house never loses"2 Slot

Machines and most table games allow players to make bets where the probability

of winning is relatively high. Frequent wins are characterized by low payouts.

These frequent wins encourage further gambles with low payouts.

Frequent winning, low paying games are not the only way casinos get

people to keep playing. Nothing less that psychological warfare is going on at

casinos across the country. "The days of shaved dice, missing face cards and

rigged roulette wheels are long gone. But the pursuit of profitability in the

corporate era of gambling has turned the average casino into a financially

hazardous place for betters"3 The casino's beliefs are all based on the fact

that since the house has an advantage over the player, the longer the house can

keep the player playing, the more money the house will make. The gambling

industry spends millions each year to whether wider isles, fresher air, and back

rests on the chairs at slot machines make a player stay longer.4 And why would

the casino care if somebody is comfortable? Because if each better stays for

just a few more minutes, it could mean millions for the casinos.

Casinos have false ceilings with rooms above them where some people

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