Gambling In Early America

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Harwick 1 Everyone likes to have a little fun. People find different ways to amuse themselves. Men look to fishing or hunting for fun. Women look to shopping to bring them a little bit of excitement. Another way people bring excitement into their lives today, includes gambling. Gambling may be fun to many and may give them an adrenaline rush, but it does more bad than good. Over the past several years, many state governments have permitted gambling by going as far as sponsoring lotteries. They believe this will increase state revenues and keep taxes down. State governments have no business promoting gambling. The lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enourmous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folkly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made a living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. In 1948, when George Orwell penned his classic novel, 1984, legal lotteries seemed unheard of in the…show more content…
Modern lotteries have essentially eliminated the risk of fraud , but because of television advertisements, the effect on individuals and society seems greater today. By responsibly handling the the lottery's promotion and taking steps to provide an adequate support system, the state can receive the benefits of additional revenue while reducing the impact of any possible adverse social consequences. Ignoring these problems has shown that the state truly gambles with our

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