However, gambling is not the evil monster that many believe it is. Gambling can be helpful to the economy in many ways. Building casinos helps to create more jobs. Casinos also serve as attractions to bring in tourists therefore increasing the wealth of the city. For example, has established a major industry in cities such as Las Vegas, which legalized gambling in 1931, and Atlantic City which legalized gambling in 1978; and some Native American reservations as well. Another popular form is the lottery that is used in numerous states in the US leaving gross revenue of over 20 billion dollars (Gambling). This can also be beneficiary because the money from the taxes goes to help the public. Many people do not want to legalize gambling because they think that it would bring in crime, but crime will be present in spite of whether gambling is legalized or not. Cities who have made gambling illegal have as much of a problem with crime as cities who have an economy that is based on gambling. Another assumption is that it will encourage people to become compulsive gamblers causing them to lead unhappy lives by wasting the little money that they have. However people will gamble if they really want to whether it is legal or not. People can easily place bets on sports games or card games; they do not necessarily have to go to a casino in order to gamble.
Legalizing gambling is thought to bring in many bad things along with it. People are