AMERICA’S GAMBLING CRAZE, James Popkin with Katia Hetter

 AMERICA’S GAMBLING CRAZE

James Popkin with Katia Hetter

American's Gambling 

The American gambling craze is something is that of course speak about the gambling capital of the USA which is Las Vegas, Nevada. Gambling was not always legal or even wildly accepted in the US. Hetter even gives an example of the  baseball commissioner banning the persons in the league from spending the night in Vegas which ends up being funny because the the year prior to the Popkin; Hetter collaboration, American's visited the casinos in Las Vegas more than they did baseball parks to watch games.

The mistrust that the people had in gambling eventually broke down as in 1931- 1991 when gambling became legalized. As casinos and lotteries spread and the more information that the citizens of the country had about the pastime, the more trust that they developed. At the time, when this work was being written there were 23 states that were authorized to have casinos in them. The casino trend spread life wild fire across the states, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Detroit, Colorado and South Dakota are just some out of the twenty three states. There are many ways people find to gamble. Through bingo, cards rooms, sports competition wagering, animal racing or competitions and jaialai.  

On the other hand, Popkin and Hetter point out what an economic inhibitor and exhibitor casinos can be. The opening of casinos have caused for persons to a lot of positive and negative impacts on the cities. It has drastically affected the economy as it has caused a significant decline in the input and output of cash into other businesses. The lack of customers in other businesses like restaurants and bars have caused a large amount of to close down. This is not a good thing as any city would want a well rounded entertainment and business basis. Just like drugs and alcohol gambling is very addictive and have even caused many people to go broke or gamble away their life savings. Consequently, as time goes along people are becoming more interested more conservative views and heavily gambling or gambling. Many people in America have fallen into debt due to gambling, hopefully as time goes by people will make more wise decisions. It may be hard to let go of the hope of winning but if you need to gamble, budget and not spend all the money.