Gamblers Aid Essay

Submitted By Prettyyoungjhaz14
Words: 1573
Pages: 7

The History of Gambling Have you ever risked money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome? If so, then you have been invovled in a form of gambling. There are so many more aspects to gambling than just the little games and bets. Gambling is an complexed and intriguing activity that can have some positive and negative effects on many peoples daily lifes. People have and can develope addictions and physcological promblems all based on the sensation they get when gambling. That is just a fraction of all of the problems and crime it can be connected to. Now there are also great perks to having some forms of gambling, lotteries being an example but to help people understand gambling, it is necessary that they learn about the history, the viewpoints, and the cold hard facts about it. Gambling is very popular in the Untied States of America today and was also prominent in the 1600's when America was first discovered. The first wave of gambling started in 1607 and lasted until the 1840's. The early colonies such as the puritains and the english had very different attitudes towards gambling and were not as open about it as the natives. Even though they delveloped their since of gambling from native americans, they still set laws and regulations on the game when it started to produced promblems within the colony. The indians were more open about gambling though. They played athelic games and took bets on which team would be victorious. They also played games of "stick and straw" which invovled two or more people breaking sticks or straws and holding them at the same length, the person to draw the shortest of the sticks would win the entire game. This form of gambling is still played today. As time progressed more restrictions and laws with regulations began to develope. This is because many people belived that gambling caused the promblems that evolved back then. (pg. 10-17) As time advanced, gambling beganed to be more accepted in the United States. Although the financial backers of the colonies viewed gambling as a source of the colonies' problems, they began to see it as the solution as well. The Virginia Company of London, the financier of Jamestown in Virginia, was permitted by the Crown to hold lotteries to raise money for the company's colonial venture. Lottieries is also known as a form of gambling. The lotteries were relatively sophisticated and included instant winners. Eventually, the crown banned the lotteries because of complaints that they were robbing England of money. The company dissolved shortly thereafter. This issue was not the last use of lotteries to benefit the colonies. All 13 original colonies established lotteries, usually more than one, to raise revenue. (Gambling History) Playing the lottery became a civic responsibility.Proceeds helped establish some of the nation's earliest and most prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, and William and Mary. Lottery funds were also used to build churches and libraries. Ben Franklin, John Hancock, and George Washington were all prominent sponsors of specific lotteries for public works projects. There are other major forms of Gambling. The major one being the lottery followed by the casino style card game. This is when some one goes to a casino and play cards with either the workers or others with large sums of money usually in the form of "chips". This is the most common form of gambling which can be the first step into devopling an addiction known as complusive gambling. Gambling addiction is an issue found in numerous areas where gambling is legal. People who are addicted to gambling, also known as psychcological/complusive gamblers, face many health risks including depression, suicidal thoughts, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, migraine and anxiety in addition to marriage breakdown, problems at work and bankruptcy.While some people can gamble in a