For years, several government quarters have continued to debate on the legality of gambling. While the debate continued, people continued to gamble.
The attraction from the beautifully decorated neon lights, the excitement, and even the five start hotels where the gambling activities take place kept gamblers wanting more and more. Although to some it looks like pastime activities, to others it has been a destructive activity that has led to addiction.
Also, gambling has led to accumulation of debts for families. This notwithstanding, gambling has led to increase in crime rates. Finally, the manipulations present in these casinos are a negative factor on their own. Therefore, this paper intends to argue that gambling should not be legalized under any circumstance.
First, gambling leads to an addiction as strong as drugs. Although many people tend to believe that gambling is just a part time and that one could spend a day gambling without any harm, experience has proved otherwise. People have become addicted to gambling hence spending more time in gambling casinos than doing other constructive jobs. These people become so addicted to the extend that they look for any opportunity to enter a casino.
This is problematic because it leads to less working time and hence less productivity. Sadly, the reduced productivity comes hand in hand with increased expenditure as more money is pumped into the casino. Therefore, legalizing gambling creates devastated less productive individuals.
Second, gambling leads to accumulation of debts. As mentioned in the above paragraph, most gamblers spend time gambling which reduces there productivity while increasing their expenditure. Given the addiction, one would rather borrow from a friend to go and gamble than stay home when he has no money.
This borrowing leads to amassing of debts. Studies have shown that a seasoned and addicted gambler has an average debt of $ 80,000. With such great amounts of debts, it becomes difficult to take care of one’s family. Eventually, some of these families break up due to inability to carry out one’s obligations as a father or mother.
Gambling leads to increase in crimes. Compulsive gamblers look for every reason to gamble whether they have money or not. After too much accumulated debts from borrowing, a gambler might find it difficult to get money from friends. Given that he cannot control himself from gambling, he might opt to use other means of getting cash to spend in the casinos.
This is how crimes begin to escalate in a given region. This is very true based on the fact that the odds of winning in a casino are as low as 1-54 million. This is as good as nonexistent.
It has also been proved that very few people can afford to lose in a casino. This larger group of people that cannot afford to lose is the one that opts to indulge in crime so that they can make some money to go back to the casino with the hope that they would have a chance of getting back their money.
Statistics from the Atlantic City of New Jersey pointed out that development of casinos in the region witnessed a 467% increase in crime within a short span of nine years.
Gambling also strains the government’s budget. As mentioned earlier, gambling is as addictive as any drug. Equally, a person can be salvaged from this destruction through rehabilitation.
The government hence loses a lot of money trying to rehabilitate the addicted gamblers. The strategies to increase security cost money. Therefore, the government is forced to spend a lot of money to mitigate the crime caused by gambling.
Furthermore, gambling leads to lowering reputation of the city in question as a result of the crimes associated. This means that tourists fear to come to the city fearing the likely consequences and for their safety. With this, the city loses a lot of money that would have been brought in by the tourist. Finally, gambling diverts money that could promote other business activities.
A great percentage of the City’s money goes straight to gamblers and owners of the casinos while other business people get pea nuts in return. A comparative analysis of the contribution of casinos and other businesses to the state’s economy shows that casino’s contribute pea nuts while demands more from the government. This means that casinos are a liability to the city or state in question.
In conclusion, it is necessary that policy makers make gambling illegal. This is as a result of the associated damages and negative contributions not only to the individuals but also to the state. For instance, gambling will lead to increased rates of crime as witnessed in Atlantic City of New Jersey.
Gambling will also lead to straining of government budget. The government is forced to spend a lot of money in controlling crime and rehabilitating addicted gamblers. Finally, gambling leads to addiction and debts hence devastation of the family institution. Given these arguments, I believe that gambling should not be legalized under any circumstance.