Should gambling be illegal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Should gambling be illegal - Essay Example It is not surprising that 51 percent of American adults consider casino gambling â€Å"acceptable for anyone,† (Popkin and Hetter 1994), as the proliferation of sports books and new casinos on virtually every Indian reservation continues unabated. Adding gambling addictions, scams, the drain on taxes, and the unchecked expansion of Internet gambling to the mix, this lucrative industry is draining much of the life out of families and the economy to the point that its illegalization is the only answer. With America’s continued economic downturn, gambling is exacerbating society’s financial woes, as it also reported to feed into costly collateral damage seen in alcoholism, prostitution, drug abuse, destroyed families and various criminal behaviors. But compared to the revenues generated by other segments of the entertainment industry, does gambling really take that big of a bite out of America’s pocketbook? To get an idea, a government report stated that in 1 997, Americans spent some $50 billion on gambling, which was more than all the money spent on movie tickets, theme parks, recorded music, and video games combined, which generated a substantially lower $39.9 billion (Campbell 1999). The government has even gotten into the gambling business through seemingly harmless state lotteries, which are often touted as â€Å"supporting our schools,† yet many taxpayer dollars go into funding gambling winnings. And even though it is noted that â€Å"Legal gambling operations in the U.S. pay millions of dollars in taxes annually to the local and federal governments,† (Hammer 2001), it is also contended that gambling throws away a great deal our federal government’s money. Yet it is argued that shutting down the gambling industry could have disastrous effects, â€Å"What happened with alcohol [prohibition] was a disaster . . . Nobody wants this business, which is flourishing offshore, being pushed back onto the streets and th e back alleys of the U.S. . . . there’s a huge opportunity here [for the government to collect revenue],†(Carruthers 2004). But legal experts assert that legalized gambling has never been on the scale to resolve any social issues, as â€Å"States frequently overestimate the financial impact of gambling revenues,† (Popkin and Hetter 1994). Consequently, it is hard to argue that keeping gambling legal will outweigh the harmful financial and social ramifications that this frivolous pastime carries with it. Feeding into the burgeoning gambling industry with its lotteries, casinos and sports books is the expansion of Internet gambling, which has ensnared Americans in the dangerous privacy and comfort of their own homes. To give a perspective of its growth, it is estimated that worldwide Internet gambling accounted for $300 million in 1997 (Campbell 1999), $2.2 billion in 2000 (Bedell 2011), and the projected amount for 2006 came to $100 billion (Baker 1999). In additi on, â€Å"It is reported that more than 4.5 million Americans have gambled online at least once,† (Bedell 2001) and it is also reported that online sports books take in more money from the Super Bowl than all Las Vegas sports bookies combined (Any Given Sunday). And with increased Internet gambling, there has been a proliferation in criminals scamming gamblers by illegally obtaining personal information, including credit card, social security and pass code data. To curb the wide-scale online scams, much legislation has been

Children's behaviour towards undiected recreational play Research Paper

Children's behaviour towards undiected recreational play - Research Paper Example A fact that is not often recognised is that play can even function as a type of therapy for children who suffer from behavioural problems. In the present world, children are exposed to numerous problems that affect them physically and psychologically. The rate of divorce has risen significantly across all nations. This means that children are increasingly being raised in single families, and having to live with the complex emotions that this triggers even though they do not have the capacity to process them. This can cause behavioural problems to arise even in the well-adjusted children. Children today are also exposed to greater levels of stress than their counterparts dealt with in past generations. Many parents today prefer for their children to entertain themselves indoors rather than exploring their surroundings outside. This is because parents tend to be committed to work activities outside the home, and so cannot supervise their children when they are outside school (Ohannessian 2014). Furthermore, parents and guardians today have more access to information through various media channels. This means that parents are more likely to think that their children are endangered due to the sheer numbers of child molesters, kidnappers, and drug traffickers that they imagine are walking through neighbourhoods. It is a fact that such miscreants existed in the past when children were allowed to play outside unsupervised; however, the parents of past generations may not have been exposed to information about child molesters on a regular basis. All children use play as a natural medium to express themselves. This means that when children have accumulated stress from family problems that they have no control over, they can actually play out their negative feelings. It is an established fact that undirected play is far more productive than directed play. This is because there are definite distinctions between child directed play and adult directed play.