Gambling and Increasing crime Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gambling and Increasing crime - Research Paper Example Whether the idea that legalizing gambling will actually help to decrease the crime rate and if it is itself a good idea to do so. There are many sides to this argument and while some critics outright claim that crime is caused by gambling there are many others who will claim otherwise. Some hold that gambling does not cause crime but helps to better society. Gambling has been a part of society for a very long time and it can take many forms and shapes. There are various definitions of the idea which is more or less taken to mean the betting of money or other valuables on the outcome of a certain event. In 1566 England, for the first time, chartered a lottery and by 1620 there was regular gambling or wagering on dog races in England. However, in 1621 the first form of restrictions were placed on gambling and then in 1815 there were licenses handed over to the city of New Orleans for gambling and by 1827 John Davis had opened a fully functional Casino in the city that was to cater to the gambling needs of the rich and elite. The history of gambling continues but later on down the road corruption and crime began to mix with the sport and it became more of a problem for the governments of the world and there were moves to eradicate it. Yet some resisted and there was a change in strategy and it was thought to better legalize and hand out li censes to casinos rather than shelve gambling and force it to be taken up underground. Many states in America resisted this move and even in 1981 the New York legislature was not ready to authorize casinos to operate in the city (Thompson, xvii). The practice has also been on the rise not only in the United States but all over the world (Momper, Delva and Grogan-Kaylor, 7). Gambling itself is not taken to be a bad practice as many people do it. It is a particularly popular in Britain in the form of betting on race horses and even lotteries are a gamble of sorts