Gambling Essay -- essays papers

Gambling As time marches on into the twenty first century, gambling has become an increasing problem in the United Sates. The continuing problem has hurt the lives of many often leading to actions such as suicides. The problem with gambling today is it is not taken as a serious problem by the American world. According to Richard Wilhelm, it is thought of as â€Å" a recreational hobby that has little negative affects†(2). Little does much of the public know that gambling is a serious addiction that can completely take over your life. It is a problem that is continuing to increase yet people have no idea the permanent damage it can cause on a person’s life. Our job is to inform people of the dangers of gambling and create a solid awareness so that this problem can be dealt with in a proper way. Unfortunately not every one feels as if we must spread the word about the dangers of gambling. Local governments are firm believers in leaving the system the way it is. It is estimated that the city of Las Vegas takes in well over a billion dollars each year throughout their casinos(1). They then use the money to build up a city that opens up both job opportunities and cheaper housing(1). Las Vegas brings up an interesting argument that benefits its city but they forgot to mention what it does to the people that live in their city. You can have the most beautiful city in the world but if people in your city are losing their life savings and killing themselves, a discussion must take place. To often with gambling, big time governments think only of the money that is coming but not how it is coming in. This is exactly what happens with gambling. Money is brought in at will in areas that contain a number of casinos. However, the money that is brought in is not honest money or hard earned money. â€Å"Governments live off the ten percent of the American population that are compulsive gamblers(2).† It is estimated that nearly one in every ten individuals today are compulsive gamblers. One thing people don’t realize is how serious compulsive gambling is. I personally am one who suffered through a great deal of distress to my addiction to gambling. People think compulsive gamblers are weird and messed up low life’s who have nothing better to due with their time. The average person thinks that there is no way he or she would ever be stupid enough to get to the point whe... ...ation is a vital part of our world and without it, we cannot know from right or wrong. If someone doesn’t tell you anything at all, you would never know the possible dangers that lurk. Before people knew about the dangers of smoking, nearly fifty percent and up of the population smoked. Now DARE programs have been set up to teach kids that this is wrong. All over the news, we here stories of alcohol related incidents as well as people over dosing on drugs. However, how often is it we here about that guy who dropped his life earnings in a night and Vegas and shot himself to death? Unfortunately we don’t. Therefore we are not able to protect our children and ourselves against what quite possibly be the fast growing disease out there. Information is the gateway to which we base our decisions on everyday, however without it we seize to know. NBC runs fifteen second clips about how knowledge is power. We need to get into the faces of the media and protest the governmentà ¢â‚¬â„¢s stance on this issue so as our children grow they will realize the dangers of gambling and not just alcohol and drugs. We have the knowledge; all we have to do is proclaim it so that the world can know how this works.