Gambling

Gambling is prominent in today's society. This can be seen especially through politics. Everywhere voters are electing people to office who are pro gambling. William Thompson of the University of Nevada (1994) describes politicians by stating, "It's part of the American landscape, they'll trade morality for dollars" (1). In North and South Carolina, for example, the last governor election showed that the people were for legal gambling by voting in governors who wanted a lottery. Now in the U.S., 47 states including the District of Columbia have legalized gambling. This increase in gambling is argued to be good for the economy, but there is further proof that it not only hurts the economy but society as well. Gambling has become outrageous. In England last year a bookmaking firm called William Hill of London offered bets on the end of the world. Some of these bets include civilization destroyed by mass suicide at 100 million to one odds, destruction by aliens at 500,000 to one odds, and worldwide floods at 100,000 to one odds. One man put a pound on 6,666,666 to one odds that the world would end at six p.m. on the sixth day of the sixth month of 1999. Another man bet at one million to one odds that the world would end on August 11, 1999 at 12:50 p.m. (ironically that happens to be Jerry Springer's time slot on many stations) (Playboy 20). Super Bowl bets in Las Vegas were also astounding this past year according to Time magazine. People bet on things like a completed first pass-attempt by John Elway, the jersey number of the first person to score, the team to score the longest touchdown, and the total number of fumbles by both teams. (18) The NCAA men's basketball tournament brought in millions of dollars this past season through gambling. Approximately 80 million was wagered with Nevada bookmakers. This was the first time that the tournament had more bets than the 78 million bet on the Super Bowl. Aside from the legal betting, the FBI estimated that 2.5 million was wagered illegally on the tournament. Many college students/athletes are now getting involved in this sort of gambling. A 1996 study completed by the University of Cincinnati surveyed 2,000 male student-athletes about NCAA rule violations and found that 25% gambled on college events other than their own. Also, 4% admitted to wagering on their own games, and 3% changed the outcome of a game in which they participated (Saum 2). In 1998, a study at a University in the Southeast Conference involving 1000 students showed that athletes were nearly twice as likely to become problem gamblers than non-athletes. Another study was conducted by surveying 1,700 students from six different colleges and universities. It found that 33% of males and 15% of females in college gamble at least once a week. College student gamblers tend to be people who believe they have control of their own destiny, take risks, and feel they ha the skill to be successful in whatever they do. Many college athletes have these same characteristics which could be one of the reasons they gamble. Many cases of college athletes loosing eligibility over gambling exist. One in particular was at a Division I university where student athletes lost 20-30% playing time in a season over betting on professional football and basketball games. In another case at a Division III School, baseball players placed bets using parlay cards and were withheld from playing half of their season. Sports wagering has become very popular and has grown immensely. One reason is that more games are televised. People like to bet on games they can watch. Another reason is that many residence halls are wired to the Internet. Through the Internet, people can place bets on any event at any time. Most like this easy access. Also, many students have access to credit cards. In a survey of students who applied for a loan, it was found that 65% have credit cards and 20% have four or more credit cards. The average balance for these cards is 2,200 dollars. The NCAA is coming up with solutions to the problem of student and illegal wagering on games. One is to build relationships with law-enforcement officers, professional sports leagues, government officials, and game regulating bodies. The NCAA is also conducting investigations related to violations of NCAA rules. Minnesota University even had Dion Lee and Kevin Pendargast, former NCAA students convicted of illegal wagering, to speak to the student-athletes to try to convince the students of how wrong and harmful gambling can be. Lotteries are another problem type of gambling. Lotteries were created and are now used to raise revenues without having to raise taxes, but instead they displace funds that would have been raised in some other way. For example, a state votes in a lottery to provide more money for schools, but the money is not added to that which is already spent on schools, the lottery money just replaces it. The former school money is used somewhere else. The Georgia lottery can be considered an exception because it awards good academic students college scholarships. This isn't a totally good thing though. The lottery tickets in poor areas than in upper class neighborhoods. Georgia uses its lottery revenues to give out HOPE scholarships (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally). But most of the students who receive this scholarship are from families