The joy of gambling

Favorite Parttime Hobby

The debate about gambling has been going on since the dawn of civilization it seems. For instance gambling was now allowed in the United States for a long time. It is only because Nevada was such a barren State without economic prospects that they got the federal authorization to offer gambling games for money. A few other locations followed in the USA including Indian reserves, but Las Vegas remains the capital of gambling in America and in the world (but Macau has now more business thanks to Chinese wealth).

 

So it looks like conservative Government have tried to prohibit gambling, but wherever it is allowed there is usually a gigantic amount of business. In Asia there are very few places where gambling is allowed. For instance it is illegal in China or Japan. But then Macau was a Portuguese colony until a decade ago, so that the Chinese authorities had no control about what was going on there. As gambling was encouraged in the 60’s, Macau was one of the few places in the region where one could find a legal game of blackjack or roulette. Macau kept on attracting more business from deprived citizens in neighboring countries, and as China’s GDP has exploded in recent years (now the second country behind the USA), this is really a boom for the city which has now become the world number one gambling spot. (note that after the Chinese takeover in 1999 they kept the Macau gambling laws intact, under the one country two systems principle).

 

Given so much business and the billions of dollars that gamblers spend live and online, one may wonder why do people like to gamble so much and why do Governments feel obliged to regulate or outlaw such activity. Of course everyone likes to win at roulette, but the odds are not in favor of the players. Casinos have the so-called house edge or rake for some table games like poker. They may offer diverse forms of rakeback, but all games always favor the casino or gaming operator. So why do people keep on playing?

 

There is no easy answer to that but we can try. First of all playing is one of the fundamental traits of human beings. When we are born and when we are children, we mostly want to play. This is the most fun thing to do. So when we become adults, some people may try to make you believe that you must change, become very serious and stop playing, but this is not true. An adult is like a child, just a bit wiser. So as adults our natural main interest is still games. Of course as people have to make a living they must first have a job and make money and they have a lot of constraints in their daily life, but what they like to do most is playing. This is something truly deeply ingrained in human nature and all the regulators in the world cannot change that.

Google+