Gambling Reasons Away

Gambling is deeply rooted in our civilization and the human nature. So the trend of why gambling businesses have been thriving lately is not that hard to explain. One factor is economic stress. Millions of people have seen their incomes stagnate and have seen the link between effort and success weakened. They have been inclined to see instead to play on luck to raise themselves out of hardship. We are prone to look for hope everywhere we can find it. There's also the rise of the anti-government and anti-tax responses. By some reason, we have grown to separate collective responsibility to our individual choices: gambling is our individual choice, our voluntary activity; while tax is for collective responsibility - a means to coerce us to pay the government.

As far as I know, the jury is still out whether legalized gambling is a good economic development tool. In the meantime, funds that are raised from gambling is benefiting. And they are those who have little to lose. The rest of us dealing with gamble are still clouded. It is true that gambling produced benefits. It had given jobs, improved school facilities, and increased real estates for the community. But a study has showed that communities that have accepted gambling have faired no better than those that didn't.

There's a conflict of interest when it comes to gambling. For those communities who have been struck by increased gambling problems, legalized gambling establishments should either be stopped or at least be halted from spreading. However, governments would encourage gambling just as long they build revenues for them. The only possible way to stop this conflict is if the government stops promoting gambling as a means to raise funds.

It is an undisputable fact that gambling can be found throughout American history. It was seen in a different light by our forefathers. Gambling was the means to give them intense experience apart from their routinized lives. For once, it gave them a ticket to escape responsibility and reality toward a life of imagination and fantasy. It was the nearest thing to a fairy tale. The closest scene everyone can do to ride out (as cowboys do) the fading sunset. Gambling was their expression of anti-utilitarian practices for this is not just about accumulating money. It helped them experience chance, and to them chance was a way to feel the heartbeats of the world. It was outside logic, outside merit, beyond effort and still you can be successful. Besides, what's wrong with gambling? Isn't it part of American culture, to take a risk? To go-after-your-dreams kind of maxim our professors always teach us. Isn't this the virtue everyone pursues as a human being? If not, why live life at all?