The World Book encyclopedia states, " gambling is betting on the outcome of a game, event, or chance happening." This definition is very ambiguous. One could say that everything in life is a gamble. When you gamble in a casino though, one will never win. Gambling in casinos destroys individual lives, while draining other industries.
Gambling hinders the world socially much more than it helps. Gambling destroys lives, ruins families, and drives people to do other unethical things such as alcohol and drug abuse. In most states at least one form of gambling is legal. This includes betting on animals. Not only does gambling promote drug and alcohol abuse, but cruelty to animals also. Casinos are the only real winners out of all who play. The betters always lose.
Casinos are neither a service nor a good. People put money into casinos, and most of the time, get nothing from them. Casinos do not help people in any way. They do not teach, provide, care, etc. for one, even though one gives them money. Casinos also do not market themselves for selling items, except cheap souvenirs, which still provide no useful good for a person. When one gambles, he has little chance of getting something in return. Casinos do not sell any physical good, such as food, clothes, or labor. They take ones money without returning it or trading it for something of value. In 1997, the gambling industry "stole" forty billion of the workingman's hard earned money. (Crapped Out, 49) .
There are two sides of gambling that people argue. Gambling devastates the economy. With facts, data and second hand accounts, one would see that there should only be one side; gambling hurts the economy. There are some aspects of how much devastation it causes that are hard to obtain true answers to. An example is how it affects the losses of jobs. Gambling effects on employment are unknown. A Maryland state study concluded that nineteen thousand people lost their jobs due to gambling.