Weighing the Economic Benefits of Gambling

It's far from a phenomenon that Americans gamble. The activity is decades older than the Constitution. There came a time that it was the primary source of government funds. If we could sum up our earnings from gambling alone, the golden calves and the silver plates of that movie National Treasure would pale in comparison. Approximately, the annual gross revenue from gambling establishment account more than $34 billion. But though gambling do compensates, it also lacerates, especially those that have to do with morality and psychology. We hear all sorts of opinion regarding gambling. To some people it is fun, for others it is wasteful, dull, harmful, and financially damaging. Nonetheless, let's discount the morals first and just look at gambling using an objective lens of an economist. So, what are the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of gambling anyway:

The Good Sides

Visit any state with several casino establishments and you would immediately notice that starvation isn't an issue there. Food and lodgings are too cheap. There is no poverty in the community. The state is accumulating wealth through entertainment. Putting up a casino in a city is like putting a TV on your room. Yes, it wastes your time. Like TV, your entertainment converts to electricity bills later. Gambling also converts to bills later, but it also earn while you do so. It raises revenue. It builds schools, roads, churches and hospitals. It creates job, increases the state's security force, and attracts tourists.

The Bad Sides

Gambling drains your energy. It is everyone's distraction in a level that can potentially make a majority an addict. A visit in the casino often keeps us from our obligations and commitments. Besides entertainment, it has nothing more. For players, it consumes without giving anything back. And this is quite true in terms of casino establishments where they cannibalize small businesses around them. And it is also true that gambling provides schools and jobs and so forth; but by doing so, it consumes enormous natural resources.

The Ugly Side

Many ascribe increased crime, alcoholism, child abuse, broken families, bankruptcies, and even murder to the boom of our gambling era. But frankly, Economists don't give a damn. The real issue to them is the net effect? Until there is a very solid evidence that gambling do causes social adversity would economists step back and let moralists stand center stage. As far as economists are concerned, gambling don't create social harms, it is only a transference of wealth to one person to another. There is yet no substantial proof that it's causing one person to harm another. Like it or not, this is what economists and state officials want as evidences if you want a proof against gambling.