ers. One is that the social attitudes towards gambling have changed form being negative to positive. Another reason is that gambling is accessible to everyone not only through existing legalized forms, but also through the Internet. The last reason for excessive gambling is that the number of people living in emotionally and financially stressed families is growing. One main issue, and probably the one most talked about, is the effects of gambling on the economy. Right now, Americans are spending more on various types of gambling than on theme parks, video games, spectator sports, and movie tickets combined. As Donald Trump put it, “ People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend on buying a new refrigerator or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they’ll lose customer dollars to the casinos.” (qt. In National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling 5) This could be applied to lotteries, bets, and other forms of gambling. For every dollar the state receives in gambling revenues, it pays nearly three dollars because of economic and social costs of gambling such as an increase in criminal justice and social welfare. Each problem gambler costs the government and private economy at least 13,200 dollars a year. Expanding gambling would be more costly than an additional hurricane Andrew every year (32 billion dollars in damage). Most pro-gambling people say that legalized gambling helps the economy, but overall they are wrong. For example Utah, a state with no legalized gambling, has the healthiest growing economy in the nation. Also, businesses prefer locating in gambling-free states because there are lower taxes and there are better community and business environments. To help the tremendous gambling problem in the U.S, the Gambling Impact Study Commission has already issued recommendations to congress. Some include a ban on wagering on college and amateur ...
