Legalizing Gambling

Legalizing Gambling in Ohio

Just a decade ago gambling was limited to two cities in the United States, Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Today there are only two states that don't have some form of legalized gambling, such as lotteries or bingo. Since commercial casino gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931, the public attitude toward gambling has shifted from prohibition to permissiveness. Pamela M. Prah discovered in 2004, that there are "11 states that have commercial casinos, six have riverboats or docked casinos, and 23 states have within their borders casinos that are owned and operated by American Indian tribes." There is no doubt that legalized gambling has "exploded in the region and around the country, from the internet and multistate lottery games to riverboats and casinos at race tracks dubbed "racinos," says Patrick Crowley of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Legalized commercial gambling is becoming one of the biggest controversies within state governments. Abolitionists believe that legalizing commercial gambling in the state of Ohio will bring an increase in crime levels, moral issues, and an increase of economical hardships within families. Activists believe that it would bring an increase in the number of jobs in Ohio, an increase in tax revenue, and also increase the amount of tourism. Would the benefits overcome the potential risks of legalizing commercial gambling in Ohio? Yes, I strongly believe that the outcomes of legalizing commercial gambling within Ohio would overcome the potential risks because of recent marketing studies performed by third party marketing firms.

Abolitionist, believe that one problem with legalizing gambling in Ohio is that it will bring new opportunities for organized crime to prey on. A good indicator of what might happen is looking at the situation Las Vegas found its self in shortly after legalizing gambling in 1931. After Nevada legalized gambling the crime syndicates found a new way of producing income, casinos. The casinos that they ran would have such high odds stacked against the gambler, it was almost impossible to win. Another way the made a profit was to loan money to gamblers who ran out of money, at extremely high interest rates. If someone failed to pay on time the mob would come and "collect", this usually meant torture, or even murder. Today researchers have found that "organized crime is more of a product of illegal or poorly regulated gambling than well-regulated gambling," according to William R. Eadington. Also because of previous public scrutiny casino companies have taken into their own hands to be "Dominated by publicly-held companies, many with household names like Hilton and Sheraton, The casinos are also answerable to their shareholders, who are thousands of individuals and institutional investors. They are also answerable to the Securities Exchange Commission, and indistinguishable from any other business with accountants, attorneys, payroll specialists, auditors, and market researchers. On top of all of those things, they are licensed and tightly regulated by state governments," according to Donald Hunter and Ernest Bleinberger, authors of "Gaming in America."

Abolitionist site biblical examples as to how gambling goes against common moral standards. According to Lamar E. Cooper Sr, "The Bible teaches that we are to live by our own work, not by the exploitation of others." He also states that, "Gambling is not an investment in anything; it is a simple win/lose proposition in which the winner takes