Ever Properly Considered a Ban on Gambling?

[BLazeD]

Recently I had to visit some houses in the poorer areas of our city, many were run down, and of course while not all were due to gambling, some of these people probably did visit the Casino.

Got me thinking - what good do Casinos do, I mean its all good for people who can control themselves, but what about those who can't?

Is support for addicts enough in your opinion?

[Fear-and-Loathing]

In my opinion, yes!

In the same way, it would be silly to ban alcohol, just because of the unfortunate few who drink to excess. Gambling is simply a system which allows you to bet cash on the outcome of events, but there can also be a high level of skill involved - particularly in games such as poker (as both FreeZey and others here could testify). I think everyone should have the right to win money, but that is just my opinion.

[FreeZey]

I think the alcohol and gambling comparison is a good one.

• Both have the potential as a negative influence.
• Both have age restrictions to reflect their dangers.
• Both aren’t abused by the majority of people who they’re available too.

The level of government control placed on something is usually dependant on the cost to personal freedom weighed against the benefits to society. In the case of gambling very few people exercise the freedom but the majority still want it there.

Getting back to the original post though, lets remember that banning something doesn’t remove it from existence. I’m sure some of the residence BLazeD spoke of might also have drug addictions and the fact that drugs are illegal doesn’t seem to have stopped their use.
Making gambling illegal would just push it into the domain of organised crime and inconvenience responsible gamblers.

If this thread is about poverty maybe we should consider looking at the failings of education, housing and income support before demonising casinos.

Sorry if that sounded preachy :? (NB: I assure you that I have no affiliation with, or own stock in any casinos or organised gambling institutions )

[jedi]

yes i think support is enough, here where i live we have no casinos, but thousands of people take their money away from here to travel to casinos in other regions.... if there money stayed here we would be better off in our area and for this reason i support them.