Sunday, August 3, 2014
Why is gambling illegal?
One of the things I do not understand is why gambling is either illegal or regulated by government so much.
It really isn't anybody's business if I decide to shoot craps or play cards for money. The only people that should be involved are the actual players and maybe the keeper of the game(s). It really is that simple.
I don't play games of chance as a regular rule. Every so often I do buy a lottery ticket just to be able to watch the evening results but it has been a couple of years since I did that.
Still, I wonder where government gets off regulating or outright forbidding this sort of thing.
Of course, the moral police will likely come charging right in and decide that it is a sin and therefore ought to be banned. Then again, the Gospel According to Piccolo says the moral police ought to start by putting their own personal behaviour through the mill first and clean themselves up.
There are an awful lot of two faced moral policemen out there.
I have no real interest in gambling but I simply wonder where government get off regulating it. I often hear that we live in a free country but I do wonder when I see things like government stepping in and regulating something that is essentially victimless.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It really isn't the government's business, or anyone else's for that matter. However, as you well know, regulation in reality simply means an additional chance to gain revenue from an activity. Just follow the money.
ReplyDeleteWell, a certain regulation needs to be done. For example, to make sure that a big casino doesn't open in a residential district and bugs everyone with noise pollution. Other than that, sells licenses, rake in taxes, done.
ReplyDeleteGambling is legal here, in all forms, except cruel and savage garbage like cock or dog fighting.
There are no issues with it. Of course every now and then someone gets addicted, but there are a lot of things people get addicted to as well, and nobody complains about them.
It's pretty much like with prostitution. Back in the days in Europe and America prostitutes were shunned, called sinners and what not. Of course nobody ever went after the men who used these women's services and those men were, at times, so called "honorable" men with families with important and powerful positions in politics, society, industry and even clergy. That already shows the double standards used in the topic.
But at the same time, the Japanese, as a prime example, were really smart. They licensed prostitution and kept it in a certain location (the so called "yoshiwara") where could control it, could check the prostitutes' health and, most importantly, could tax it. Genius. Any man could do "business" there as long as he had coin. The Yoshiwara not only had prostitutes, but also the geisha and many other artists and craftsmen and it was one of the things that allowed Japan to have such an unprecedented cultural bloom in the Edo period.
The place was even guarded, for once to prevent the prostitutes from fleeing (not all of the women were there because of their own free will, prostitution was form of a punishment, too) but also to prevent customers from getting unruly or too rough with the girls.