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Gambling

Introduction

Gambling is the process in which money is put on stake in the hopes of gaining more money. But what we need to understand is that when it comes to making money, we need to understand and draw a line between greed and need. But engaging in gambling blurs that particular line (Lesieur, 1998, 153-171). It can result in addiction in which a person might get into a situation where he might end up losing all his money in his attempt to make more. Gambling can also result in increase in crime rates and other ill practices which might affect our social and family life. So the best solution for avoiding the bad effects of gambling is to make it illegal (Kaplan, Kessler, p.22).

Discussion

At the federal level, gambling has become a divisive topic. Members of the 104th Congress are split over whether the industry should be regulated more severely or even banned in some circumstances. Rep. Wolf's bills to establish a national commission have about 100 supporters in the House; the Senate bills reportedly have strong support as well.

Opponents of the bills include Nevada's congressional delegation and lawmakers from other commercial gambling states such as New Jersey. They claim that the proposed commission would not be impartial and would look for the negative effects of gambling only. Frank Fahrenkopf, the head of the American Gaming Association, an industry-supported lobbying group, said that the commission bills represent an assault on the gambling industry by "a greedy federal government and moral crusaders." He argues that the commission's authors are seeking to impose more regulations on an industry that he claims is already the most regulated in the nation (Derevensky, Gupta, p.78).

Conservatives and liberals are also split among themselves over gambling. Many members of the Republican Party, including Dole, ...