How does gambling effect a community financially or communally and should we have legalized gambling?

svtouchdown0909: How does gambling effect a community financially or communally and should we have legalized gambling?
I realize the matters of crimes dealing with casinoes and gambling, but there are other reasons why gambling hurts a community and the financials to a community. Please do not give me a yes or no answer, but give me an open-ended question.

Answers and Views:

Answer by myhalo 1
No. Legalized gambling is just another tax on those people in our society who cannot afford it. Its stupid.

Answer by pcpy
Do you want an answer or a question? Sorry, that’s not open-ended.

The majority of jobs available for these types of establishments are very low paying. How many industries that flood an area with minimum wage work and distribute the majority of profits to outside investments, are good for the local economy? (hint, Wal-Mar is one, can you name others?)

Answer by karen v
When you have gambling in your community it is so easy for people to become addicted, then they will lose everything that they have to support their habit. They will also take money that they need for their families and gamble it away. I think that gambling is like drugs, once you start you cant stop.

Answer by dasvidas
Legalized gambling is the redistribution of wealth, in an anti-socialism kind of way. Instead of taking money away from wealthy and distributing it to the poor, “gaming” takes money away from the lower classes and gives it to the casinos and the wealthy casino owners. I’ve been to casinos on dozens and dozens of occasions, and can personally attest that the majority of persons gambling are the elderly. Let’s be honest about leaglized gambling – this isn’t Casino Royale where multi-millionaires are standing around the craps table having their busty, scantily clad girlfriends blow on the dice for good luck. These are people’s grandparents putting their social security checks into nickel slot machines just to pass the time.

This is a hot topic in my community, and the supporters of the casinos stress the amount of tax revenue it will bring to the state. The question is at what cost? The perfect example of how gambling can destroy a city is Atlantic City, NJ. Atlantic City used to be a vibrant, sea side town. Now it is one of the more dangerous places in the state. It used to be a family friendly vacation destination steeped in rich tradition including the annual parades held on the boardwalk. Now, its not safe to walk the boardwalk at night.

Will casinos bring jobs? Yes.
Will casinos bring tax revenue? Yes.
Will the casinos bring increased crime? Yes. (which will require some of that “tax revenue” to fund a greater police presence)
Will a lot of this be funded by people who cannot afford to gamble? Yes.

The number one rule of gaming – “the house always wins.” Why do communities think it will be any different this time?

Answer by mr.phattphatt
gambling sucks the life and investment funds out of the hands of the comunnity and sends it to greedy demons who care not at all for your welfare. the large percent of weak people who hate thier life so much that they would gamble anything to try for a small chance to escape thier life wind up loosing everything and thier children have to have welfare just to eat.. Most marriages don’t survive one gambling addict . Most addicts die alone, miserable, homeless, and jonesing for another jackpot– one that won’t ever come . It is the worst of all addictions and the hardest habit to break.. gambling should be illegal forever everywhere..

Answer by iraqisax
The reason that gambling was illegal is because certain people become addicted to it. It becomes a vice. They can’t wait to get their paycheck so they can buy more lottery tickets.

These people neglect their families. They have the idea that they can get something for nothing. Personally, I wouldn’t waste my money on a lottery ticket.

Because of the caliber of people we now have in the legislatures, gambling is legal in many states (including my own, CT). Its what I call the greed factor. Our politicians want more money to work with so that they can make more deals. Our former governor spent a year in jail for kickbacks. Our current governor hasn’t done anything about the excessive amount of taxation in our state. In point of fact, there is no legitimate reason for our state to take in the amount of money that it does. A common question in CT is: where does all the money go?

I forgot to ad the fact that we have a couple of Indian casinos. The state government extorts money out of them. If our politicians can smell money, they want some of it.