Gambling in America and Gamblers

Gambling in America and Gamblers Quan Nguyen English 135 Sherri Harvey

Gambling in America and Gamblers Gambling In America and Gamblers

Is Gambling Immoral? How Serious Is the Problem of Compulsive Gambling? How Does Legalized Gambling Affect Communities? How Should the Government Regulate Gambling? Because legalized gambling has become so widespread, it is important to consider what the full social and economic impacts of gambling will and could be. Almost every person live in America loves to gamble. Most of them say they play the lottery, and more than a quarter people around the world are regularly visit casinos and card houses. Each year American by itself lose more than billion dollars on legal wagering in casinos and bingo halls, on lotteries, and at racetracks. They spend an additional unknown amount in private settings, such as poker games, and through illegal channels, such as bookies. People gamble to feel the fun environment, exciting, challenge, recreation and socializing.

This enthusiasm for gambling is as old as the nation itself. During the Revolutionary War, states sponsored lotteries to help finance their armies. Thomas Jefferson advocated state sponsored gambling as a voluntary, rather than a coercive, tax. Lotteries became popular again after the Civil War, when southern states used them to finance Reconstruction projects. Lotteries were sanctioned because they raised funds for worthy causes; other forms of gambling remained illegal and socially unacceptable until the twentieth century. (By Thomas Barker and Marjie Britz n..d)

Many states started to permit betting on horse and dog races in the 1920s, and Nevada became the first state to legalize casino-style gambling in 1931. Every state had banned lotteries because of scandals in the 1880s involving embezzlement and fraud, but in 1964 New Hampshire, which has no income or sales tax, revived the lottery as a means of generating

Gambling in America and Gamblers revenue. It was an enormous success, with the majority of tickets purchased by out-of-state residents. In the next ten years, writes economics professor Richard Mc- Gowan, every northeastern state approved a lottery. But, he reports, The greatest growth of state lotteries occurred between 1980 and 1990. Twenty-five states approved lotteries, off-track betting, keno, and video poker machines. (Thomas Barker and Marjie Britz n..D)

Another development in the 1990s was the spread of Indian casinos. Many American Indian reservations are on lands that lack natural resources, and poverty and unemployment are exceptionally high among Native Americans. In the 1980s many tribes looked to casino gambling as a means of generating both jobs and tribal revenues. In 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that tribes could operate legal forms of gambling on their lands free from state regulation and taxes. In response to criticism of the large amounts of untaxed, uncontrolled income, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which returned some power to the affected states. The result has been a compromise, with tribes and state governments negotiating over whether a tribe may build a casino and what types of games it may offer. Today there are more than 120 Indian casinos in 28 states. (By Jeff Benedict n..d)

Not surprisingly, the spread of legalized gambling has raised a number of concerns. Many Americans remain morally opposed to gambling. The Navajo, for example, have refused to adopt Indian casinos on ethical grounds. Others warn about the growing problem of compulsive gambling, which in some cases can lead to bankruptcy, crime, and even suicide. Some critics charge that it is wrong for the government to promote gambling and unwise for states to rely on gambling for revenue. A growing antigambling movement, headed by organizations such as the National Coalition against Legalized Gambling, maintains that the

Gambling in America and Gamblers social costs of gambling far outweigh its purported economic benefits. (By Frederick Barthelme n..d)

The legal gambling industry is composed of numerous types of activities/games, taking place in varied settings run by private and public (government) entities. However, the elements of chance, consideration (something of value), and prize/reward define gambling, no matter what the setting, activity, or public/private proprietorship. Defines gambling as an activity in which a person subjects something of value usually money to a risk involving a large amount of chance in hopes of winning something of greater value, which is usually money. (By Frederick Barthelme n..d)

The activities, or gambling forms, vary by the element of chance present. Some forms of gambling, such as bingo, slot machines, keno, lotteries, craps, and roulette, are pure chance events with no skill that can affect the outcome. The player, no matter what he or she thinks, cannot affect the outcome of independent, random events. Begging or cajoling the dice will not influence the results. Slot machines, where outcomes are determined by random-number generators, are not influenced by the superstitions or antics of the player. Anyone visiting a casino and watching crap shooters or slot players will see this fact is either unknown or ignored by the players. Skill can reduce, but never eliminate, the odds against the player in some games, such as blackjack, poker, and sporting and racing events. One could argue, and some do, that the stock market and other financial markets are gambling with a large amount of skill involved. The National Council on Problem Gambling includes the stock market in their list of forms of gambling. In fact, commodities trading are an example of gambling by any definition.

Gambling in America and Gamblers In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) to address these concerns. The commission released its report in June 1999. The report is inconclusive on many important issues, stating that the available information on economic and social impact is spotty at best and usually inadequate for an informed discussion. The commission did, however, call for a moratorium on gambling expansion. The Commissioners believe it is time to consider a pause in the expansion of gambling, the report states. The purpose of this recommended pause is to encourage

governments to do what to date few if any have done: To survey the results of their decisions and to determine if they have chosen wisely. (By Jeff Benedict n..d)

Gambler! What meaning of Gambler? Psychology world describe gambling make people have feeling happy or satisfy. People dont have to go to casino to call gambler, dont have to bet on sport games, stocks, lottery, scratch tickets, play poker on poker channel for call gambler, everything that do daily basis are gamble. Most of people not all live in this planet can call gamblers. There are so many types of gamblers: Professional gambler, Social Gambler, relief and escape gambler, compulsive gambler, law gambler, business gambler. There are gamblers that gamble everyday in their own regular daily activities in some form or another. Definition of Gambler is person like to take risk, chance to make thing success, and have satisfied feeling. Why people love to gamble? There are many arguments can be made regarding why people love to gamble. Generally, gambling increases crime. It destroys families and society and many problems result from compulsive and pathological gamblers. The complex mixture of anticipation and reward involved in gambling makes the activity exciting for many people. People gamble for a chance to win money. Winning money can help many different people to meet their daily needs, freedom, security and a good life, thats why so many people like to bet

Gambling in America and Gamblers

big so they can win big also they can lose big. The seriousness of gambling as a whole can cause lives to be destroyed, and families as well as friendship, maybe devastated by this addiction. Three subtypes of gamblers. The first subtype, referred to as the emotionally vulnerable problem gamblers, includes those who mainly gamble to escape from painful emotional experiences. The second one includes antisocial impulsivity problem gamblers who are driven primarily by impulsivity and sensation seeking. The last one, referred to as the behaviorally conditioned problem gamblers, includes gamblers who gamble because of behavioral contingencies offered by the game rather than psychological difficulties. Whether it is more an environmental conditioning or an internalization of motivation that leads to competitive spirit among athletes is an issue of debate. However, regardless of the exact mechanism involved, it appears that the desire for competition has become embedded in the individual and is unlikely to become and then to remain dormant simply due to an individuals retirement from his or her sport. Therefore, it would not be surprising if competitive activities outside the sports environment became attractive to someone who is no longer able to participate in sports. Gambling has long been described as having competitive attributes; therefore, it may to some degree serve as an adequate replacement for former athletes who have left the sports setting. (By John Scarne n..d)

There are people who gamble for fun but there are people gamble for living and are call professional gamblers. For example at Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California. There are hundreds of professional gamblers plays every day. Their main focus is to win their opponent moneys. They play conservative and they bet real carefully. They dont like to gamble, they use gamble as their job to make living. Their strategies are to bet small win big. The opposite of them are people who dont like to win moneys but they just want to feel the cards. They want the

Gambling in America and Gamblers feeling of gambling because it in their blood. They just stay there and live there from day to night so they can smell the cards. Those people are call addictive to gambling.

People love to gamble because they love the crowd. Socializing is first main point people want to have. Casinos, greyhound, horse racing are the places people want to come. People love the feeling to beat an opponent so they dont mind to show their ability and knowledge. People want to see that, so they can learn and upgrade their skill to beat other opponents. Gambling can make people improve their skills. Playing any games without betting makes the games feel boring. It doesnt matter whether small bet or it is playing big bet, it is can make the game exciting and challenging. (By Jarvis, T. J. 1997, May 20)

Now with the technology getting better and better people can gamble online. So many people gamble online because is convenient. There are many popular casino games people can play online like: poker, slots, roulette, blackjack, craps, keno and baccarat. Many casinos website like: FulltiltPoker.Net, Partypoker.Com, Ultimatebet.Net, WSOP.Com, PokerStar.Com and many more. Those website get people to download and play for free. They can play to earn points and transfer points into real moneys. People think that since they play games at free casino they will not lose any moneys. In fact that wrong thinking, people will lose money because after they play for while the website will invite them to play for real moneys like offer them extra cash for first deposit.

Now there is another gambler. This gambler they use their life, their career to gamble. Who they gamble with? They gamble with law. You probably hear a lot about financial fraud on the news. Much High rank management in big company gets caught for fraud like Bernie Madoff for Wall Street. CEO Maurice "Hank'' Greenberg and CFO Howard Smith for AIG. WorldCom

Gambling in America and Gamblers scandal CEO Bernard Ebbers, CFO Scott Sullivan, David Myers (Comptroller) and Buford

"Buddy" Yates Director of General Accounting. Those people are gamblers with educated. They use their life and their career to gamble. They think they are smart and they will win the bet, unfortunately they cant win with the law. They all get caught and put in prison for all their life. (By Douglas Rice) Gambling can steal time, money and corrupt the society. Gambling can lead people into dept and destroy the gamblers families. There are so many crimes because of gambling. When people lose money and then they want to win their moneys back they will do anything like stealing money from other person, or kill people. State of Maryland has an estimate problem gamblers lose from $52,000 to $1.5 billion dollars in 1994. Not only does legalized gambling increase local crime, it is also destructive to individuals and families. Gambling is often addictive, and many people who gamble develop into problem or compulsive gamblers. The American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders characterizes pathological gambling as a chronic and progressive failure to resist impulses to gamble, a gambling behavior that compromises, disrupts, or damages personal, family, or vocational pursuits. The number of compulsive gamblers and problem gamblers increases substantially when gambling is legalized. In 1974, when Nevada was the only state where gambling was permitted, the number of problem gamblers in the United States was much less than one percent of the countrys population; whereas, in Nevada it exceeded 2.5%. Currently, the number of compulsive gamblers is estimated at approximately 1% of the population in states where gambling is illegal, but close to 5 percents in states where gambling is legal, and fully 10% of the entire population constitute problem gamblers.(By Jarvis, T. J. 1997, May 20)

Gambling in America and Gamblers Gamble can help people escape from stress at work or home. Gambling lend people to socializing, sense of belonging. There are charities that using gambling to make profit put in the fund to help people around the world. Poker channel show the poker players play charities tournaments. Now there are hotline phone numbers that can help people to get away from addicted to gamble. I see the commercial of Harrah Casino, the CEO of the Harrah Casino even

said If any one who addicted to gamble can call this number for help. He thinks that gamble is for fun not for addicted. There many arguments against gambler have been made. Generally are negative consequences that gambling increases crimes, destruction of family and society and many problems result from compulsive and pathological gamblers. The complex mixture of anticipation and reward involved in gambling makes the activity exciting for many people. . Some people gambling for a chance to win moneys. Winning moneys host many different people for meeting daily needs, freedom, security and a good life, thats why so many people like to bet big so they can big also they lose big. Some of them lose their house, family and their job because of gambling. (By Jarvis, T. J. 1997, May 20)

Gamblings philosophy something-for-nothing undermines the framework of our society. Gambling steal money and time and corrupt of our society. One thing we also need to know that gambling something-for-nothing is a lie. We need to teach the truth about gambling from nothing-for-something to other people. Use what we know about gambling to change attitude, perception, and law about gambling in our communities, national and people around the world. (By Jarvis, T. J. 1997, May 20)

Gambling in America and Gamblers Quit Gambling is not hard like people think of it. Now there are hotline phone numbers

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that can help people with their gambling addiction (877-559-9355). When you call this number, there are psychologists will help by focus on individual therapy to address the roots of people addiction or set up a program to fit individual situation. (By Williamsville Program n..d)

Gambling is a fun mentality because people use gambling to stay away from stress. Gambling can make people connect around the world. People use gambling to make friends and their main key is to socialize. Business people use gambling to meet clients. There some channels that show poker tournaments and professional pokers who play each other for charities. Gambling can help people but it is just depend how people use it.

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References Effects of Gambling. (n.d.).Welcome to ProblemGambling.ca. Retrieved December 15, 2010, http://www.problemgambling.ca/EN/AboutGamblingandProblemGambling/Pages/TheEf fectsOfGambling.aspx Douglas Rice 2009's Biggest Financial Scandals - Forbes.com. (n.d.). Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/06/biggest-financial-scandals-personal-finance-2009scandals.html Jarvis, T. J. (1997, May 20). Gambling [pdf]. Retrieved from http://math.byu.edu/~jarvis/gambling/gambling/gambling.pdf Jeff Benedict Without Reservation: The Making of Americas Most Powerful Indian Tribe... | AccessMyLibrary - Promoting library advocacy . (n.d.). News, research, .

and information libraries trust | AccessMyLibrary - Promoting library advocacy Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G178901872/without-reservation-making-america.html

Jokers Wild: Legalized Gambling in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Barker, Marjie Britz. (n.d.). Questia - The Online Library of Books and Journals. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&docId=101011069 Woehr, M. (n.d.). Greenberg Found Liable for AIG Fraud - TheStreet. Stock Market Today Financial News, Quotes and Analysis - TheStreet. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://www.thestreet.com/story/10898446/1/greenberg-found-liable-for-aig-fraud.html

Psychology of gambling. (n.d.). Online Casino - Top Offers at the Best Online Gambling Web

Gambling in America and Gamblers Sites. Retrieved December 15, 2010 from http://www.gamblingplanet.org/editorial/Psychology-of-gambling/070209 Stace, W. (n.d.). Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss by Frederick Barthelme -

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Powell's Books. Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780395954294-2 Scarne's New Complete Guide to Gambling by John Scarne : Lybrary.com. (n.d.). Lybrary.com your ebook store specializing in magic ebooks, gambling ebooks and games ebooks. Retrieved December 15, 2010, from http://www.lybrary.com/scarnes-complete-guidegambling-p-749.html

Williamsville Program | Gambling Treatment Center. (n.d.). Williamsville Wellness. Retrieved December 15, 2010, from http://nongambler.com/williamsville-program