Communities Against Gambling
Many communities, even amongst the religious community, greatly disapprove of gambling activities as they say it can cause very negative effects and have a bad influence on society.
In a lot of countries gambling is either banned or curtailed by the government, yet in a number of cases, a government may regulate gambling as such that the government office is largely involved in giving high taxation, leading to the procurement of a significant amount of government revenue. Monaco, and Macau are examples of such countries.
A number of communities believe that casinos can be losers for their respective communities and can only do more harm than good. There have been evidences shown that gambling and casinos can also create a loss of jobs and can become a disaster economically for cities that have them. Religious leaders, especially those from the Catholic and Baptist communities have been lobbying against the opening of casinos in their towns and cities for years, saying that gambling can cause the deterioration and destruction of families, especially if one of the family members has become highly addicted to gambling or has a gambling problem.
In some cases where the father or head of the family has developed an addiction to gambling, it has caused great upset and problems, especially for the children. Excessive and uncontrollable gambling, they reiterate, could also lead to depression, paranoia, and the unnecessary loss of income of a family. Some church ministers would argue that in some families where there is a problem gambler, instead of using the money for more worthwhile purposes like education for their kids, the money is uncontrollably used to fund gambling nights outs as a means to temporarily get a thrill and escape the real world. Such an activity would be very counter-productive.
However, there have also been a number of politicians and businessmen who have become defenders of casinos and gambling, stating that such gambling businesses can also provide more jobs to a community. Politicians can often be engrossed in the promotion of gambling in their respective cities, and become heavily into the propaganda game. It is even said that some education experts have also been bought by casino businessmen in order to talk about gambling and casino gaming in a more positive light.
No matter who among them is right or wrong about the gambling industry, it is up to the individual to choose and decide what he wishes to believe. The fact is, gambling has and always will be a part of human society be it either in its malignant or benign variations.