http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/should-gambling-be-legal Opposing Views - Should Gambling be Legal? http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/follow-this-argument-and-everything-should-be-legalized Not everything should be legalized. But honest, consensual activities involving adults should. The claim that legalizing gambling does not reduce illegal gambling is puzzling. If all gambling were legalized, there would be no illegal... Reason Foundation Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:16:58 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/follow-this-argument-and-everything-should-be-legalized http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/because-some-people-are-drowning-we-should-throw-everyone-a-stone The point is that prohibiting an activity is not justified simply because some people engage in it to excess. In this regard, there is no principled distinction between gambling and any other source of pleasure (or stress relief) that can become the... Reason Foundation Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:16:58 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/because-some-people-are-drowning-we-should-throw-everyone-a-stone http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/true-states-become-predators-of-their-own-citizens-with-lotteries Finally we agree on something: the need to abolish all forms of state-sponsored gambling. That category includes not just lotteries but gambling businesses that rely on special legal privileges, such as state-awarded monopolies on horse... Reason Foundation Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:16:58 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/true-states-become-predators-of-their-own-citizens-with-lotteries http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/legalization-increases-rather-than-decreasing-illegal-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 When Prohibition was repealed, did Al Capone-style gangsters continue to sell booze?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... Reason Foundation Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:16:58 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/legalization-increases-rather-than-decreasing-illegal-gambling http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/an-absurd-and-shallow-argument Preserving the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness requires a government that forbids and punishes the use of force or fraud to harm people or deprive them of their property. Preventing people from playing poker or betting on... Reason Foundation Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:16:44 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/an-absurd-and-shallow-argument http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/an-absurd-and-shallow-argument This is an absurd postulate, even for an anarchist. The very business of government is to direct and limit the activities of adults. Even true anarchists of the 18th century believed one day government would become unnecessary because mankind would... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:10:03 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/an-absurd-and-shallow-argument http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/follow-this-argument-and-everything-should-be-legalized There are always people willing to participate in illegal activities. Legalizing everything that humans do will not stop that. The ESPN survey includes nickle-and-dime bets over the water cooler and a myriad of low-level background wagering. The... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:10:03 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/follow-this-argument-and-everything-should-be-legalized http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/because-some-people-are-drowning-we-should-throw-everyone-a-stone This argument suggests because humans have some addictive tendencies, gambling promoters should be unleashed to they can addict all possible victims. One might not that compulsive shoppers don't generally lose their homes and wind up... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:10:03 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/because-some-people-are-drowning-we-should-throw-everyone-a-stone http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/legalization-increases-rather-than-decreasing-illegal-gambling 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... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:10:03 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/legalization-increases-rather-than-decreasing-illegal-gambling http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/true-states-become-predators-of-their-own-citizens-with-lotteries We agree fully that states are hypocritical when they prey upon their own citizens with predatory, regressive lotteries and other forms of gambling. See major research at www.taxfoundation.org  for complete information about the use of... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:10:03 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/counters/true-states-become-predators-of-their-own-citizens-with-lotteries http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-hypocritical At the same time that the government arrests people for accepting certain kinds of bets, it protects politically favored forms of gambling. States operate lotteries while prosecuting private lottery operators. The federal Unlawful Internet Gambling... Reason Foundation Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:18:23 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-hypocritical http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-counterproductive Banning gambling hands the business and its profits to criminals. Although prohibitionists claim to be worried about consumer fraud and money laundering, the risks of both are much greater in a black market. Reason Foundation Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:18:20 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-counterproductive http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-arbitrary Anything that people enjoy can be done to excess, and gambling does not seem any harder to resist than other pleasurable activities that remain perfectly legal. According to a survey reported in the October 2006 American Journal of Psychiatry ... Reason Foundation Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:18:03 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-arbitrary http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-futile Although accepting sports bets is illegal everywhere in the United States except Nevada, a 2003 ESPN survey found that 118 million Americans bet on sports each year. In 1999 the National Gambling Impact Study Commission reported that “estimates of... Reason Foundation Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:16:20 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-futile http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-unjust The government has no business interfering with voluntary, peaceful transactions among adults. People have a right to spend their own money on whatever form of entertainment they like, as long as they do not violate other people’s rights in the... Reason Foundation Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:16:17 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/prohibition-is-unjust http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/its-a-free-country-isnt-it Important Constitutional duties of state and national government include protecting citizens from dangerous products, health risks, ponzi schemes, false advertising, bait and switch tactics and crime. Gambling fits all of those descriptions and... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:16:14 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/its-a-free-country-isnt-it http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/isnt-this-a-moral-issue Over time, activities that damage a society, its culture, its economy, its families and its ability to survive come to be considered “immoral.” It’s a bit of a chicken and egg debate. Are... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:16:10 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/isnt-this-a-moral-issue http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/illegal-gambling-remains Legalizing gambling does not reduce illegal gambling. Legalized gambling may even increase illegal gambling because untaxed illegal operators may offer better odds, bigger payoffs and loans that legal operations cannot. Patrons in gambling states... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:16:00 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/illegal-gambling-remains http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/trading-jobs-kills-development Most casinos attract 80% or more of their market from a 35-50 mile radius. Casinos absorb existing entertainment, restaurant and hotel business, and deplete dollars available to other retail businesses. That destroys other jobs in the trade area and... Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:15:49 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/trading-jobs-kills-development http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/real-costs-for-everyone Gambling costs more than raising taxes, even for those who NEVER gamble! Each compulsive gambler costs the economy between $14,006 and $22,077 per year. If 2% become addicted, that’s $280 to $440 per year paid by every other citizen! Coalition Against Legalized Gambling Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:15:39 -0600 http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/real-costs-for-everyone