Do you feel lucky? Do you? Almost everyone’s gambled at some point in his life, laying down money on everything from lottery tickets to Vegas poker tables. The thrill of chasing that elusive jackpot has turned gambling into a multi-billion-dollar industry, but there’s a personal risk that comes with every wager. With nearly 500 casinos currently open for business in the U.S. has legalized gambling gone too far?
William Jahoda, the late “State’s Witness” against the Mob, laughed at the concept that legalizing gambling would prevent illegal gambling. For his former partners, legalized gambling was a training ground for new gamblers. Once gambling is legalized, law enforcement loses interest because the illegal gambling becomes more of a tax issue than a crime. Worse, when gamblers run out of money, they turn to loan sharks and underworld sources.
No jurisdiction has EVER demonstrated a decrease in illegal gambling with the introduction of legalized gambling.
Again, this makes no sense. When Prohibition was repealed, did Al Capone-style gangsters continue to sell booze? A black market can persist only if certain forms of gambling remain illegal. If the government respected the right of adults to engage in peaceful, honest transactions, the only forms of gambling that would remain illegal would be those involving fraud and those involving children. There would not be a very big demand for either.
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