Gambling revenue brings in a lot of revenue for Iowa. Thanks to the recession, much gambling revenue has dropped. Looking to fill the gap left by the lowered gambling fund, Iowa is considering a bill that would legalize online poker. About fifteen million people are estimated to play online gambling illegally on sites run by overseas companies with no standardized regulations.

The bill involves state casinos setting up their own sites and running virtual poker games on the internet. Game types would include Texas Hold ‘Em, for example. Lobbyists for this movement says this is a win for the casinos, for the states, and for Iowa residents who want to gamble. Casinos can get more local customers instead of having those customers go and spend their money overseas. Taxpayers would see about a $30-35 million dollar increase in tax revenue. Online gamblers would also be protected, unlike gamblers who play on overseas sites. These players often have no guarantee that they’re going to get the money promised to them.

The current status of the bill is that it needs to pass the Senate State Government Committee before the Senate and the House. Then it must pass the Governor. However, many analysts aren’t reading a lot of opposition to the bill.

The bill also states that a referendum must be set up every eight years so counties can vote on whether or not to keep their casinos open. It also attempts to set up new horse-racing guidelines.

Iowa is not the only state to consider such a bill. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is currently deciding on a bill that would allow internet gambling in New Jersey. The bill already passed through both New Jersey voters. If Christie decides to veto the bill, it will go up for voter approval. Many expect the bill to fail if it’s offered to voters, since 67 percent of those polled said that they were against online gambling. If passed, Atlantic City casinos could then set up their own websites. The money earned from online gambling is going to be allocated to the horse-racing industry.

So you’ve just heard the news. They’re debating putting a casino into your local town. Your first knee-jerk reaction may be to rally against the cesspool of debauchery and sin that’s coming to your town. Your other reaction may be to cheer that the casino will bring in jobs and revenue. You may be sitting firmly on the fence on this one. Here are some pros and cons of having a casino as your neighbor.

The Pros: Money Talks

Money, money, money. That’s the main reason to be glad about a casino moving in. Casinos are taxed, so a casino means more revenue for your government and less tax dollars owed at tax season. State officials may be pushing for the casinos even if their constituents are against it because casinos bring in a lot of money for the state, money that can be put to use building schools, fixing bridges, and constructing roads. That money can also go to local homeless shelters or for community events. Casinos also bring in a lot of jobs, which is always nice for a community– especially in a recession. Casinos also have the benefit of offering both entry-level jobs and more experienced jobs. With casinos come tourists, which means a big boost for the tourism industry in your area. Small businesses may have an easier time staying in business. Hotels and restaurants could open up or receive a boost in sales.

The Cons: What is the Money Saying?

Some people feel that the money a casino can provide is “dirty money.” It’s no secret that gambling sometimes becomes an addiction, not a fun pleasure activity. Gambling can send citizens into severe debt if they don’t know when to stop. Worse, casinos get their money by other people losing money, so they certainly take no precautions in preventing a huge loss. Gambling addiction therapy programs may become necessary.

Native American casinos always have fallen short of non-Native American owned casinos, but that may change in the near future. Native American casinos have shown strong growth since 1988. The only time they’ve fallen in that time period was in 2009, probably because of the recession. Even with the fall, it was only a fall of one percent, and the casinos will probably grow again now that the economy is slowly recovering.

Native American casinos experienced 96 percent of the profit that other casinos take in. Native American casinos have expanded rapidly in recent years, growing from earning 89 percent of casino revenue to 96 percent in just one year. Native American-run casinos are also good for tax revenue, as they are estimated to bring in a whopping total of $10.5 billion in revenue for both local, state, and federal governments. These casinos also bring in 682,000 jobs, paying out these individuals $28 billion in wages.

Native American casinos earn the most for California, brining the state almost $7 billion worth of revenue. The four states under California (Oklahoma, Connecticut, Florida, Washington) are all high-rollers for the industry, bringing in just over 60 percent of all Native American resort revenue. “Racinos,” which are casinos that also offer horse racing, are also showing a significant growth.

History of the Native American Gaming Industry

Native American tribes have greater sovereignty and control over their businesses, which is why it’s easier for them to open casinos outside of state regulations. Native American gaming began as a result of a Supreme Court decision in the 1970′s that stated that governments could not tax or regulate happenings at an Indian reservation. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed in 1988, did allow governments to enforce some regulations on Native American-run casinos. There are an estimated 400 Native American gaming establishments around the United States currently in operation. One of the largest Native American casinos in the United States is the Pechanga Resort and Casino in California. The Foxwoods Resort Casino is another notably large casino, which is located in Connecticut and has been operating since 1992.

Gambling came to the United States along with the first boats from Europe. Although many of the settlers, the Puritans, came to America in order to create a new society, they did so along with many other people, who had no intention of leaving behind their practices of gambling. In fact, even the early colonies held lotteries in order to raise money for their development.

Historically, gambling has always had some type of restriction in most states. There was a period in the early 1900s when gambling was all but illegal in most places of the United States. This movement was lead by part of the United States population that considered gambling to be bad for society, and increase issues for addiction in some people.

In the 1930s gambling was made legal in Nevada, and the beginnings of Las Vegas growth began. In fact, gambling is legal and the federal government leaves all regulation of gambling up to the state governments. In the 1980 organized gambling on Native American Reservations began to grow as a way for Native Americans to increase revenue. This changed the availability of casino gambling all over the nations as Native American reservations were not bound by state laws. Casinos have started being built and opening for business all over the place.

For many people, one needs only to take a short drive to get to a casino these days. Gone are the days of hitching a ride on a Mississippi riverboat to do gambling. It appears that gambling is part of the culture here in the United States and it will stick around.

It’s estimated that 26 percent of adults in the U.S. have a mental health disorder. Mental health disorders are classified into several groups including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders. Awareness of the symptoms of mental health disorders is helpful if you believe that you or someone in your family may have a mental health disorder.

Two prevalent mood disorders are depression and bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by very extreme mood swings that can include manic highs and depression. Symptoms of bipolar disorder can include racing thoughts, irritability, and fatigue. Depression can be mild, as in dysthymic disorder, or severe, as in major depressive disorder. Depression is characterized as persistent feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness, extreme sadness and trouble concentrating. In severe cases, these symptoms may also be accompanied by suicidal thoughts.

While anxiety is perfectly normal in the face of a stressful situation, anxiety disorders can be debilitating. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is characterized by recurrent thoughts and repetitive behaviors. People with panic disorder can experience unexpected episodes in which they feel dizzy, weak and have chest pains; along with a loss of control. A combination of medication and therapy can help to treat anxiety disorders.

Individuals with eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, take worrying about their weight to an unhealthy extreme. People with anorexia often have a distorted body image and this leads them to take in far fewer calories than they need to survive. Starvation diets coupled with strenuous exercise can lead to serious illness or death. Bulimics binge on large amounts on food and then purge their bodies of the food by vomiting or taking laxatives. They also exercise a lot so that they do not gain weight. Psychotherapy, sometimes coupled with medication, can help people with eating disorders get on the road to recovery.

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Gambling has emerged as a very popular term today. It is mostly used for high class people and refers to wagering of money or anything of a material value. It is typically routed through a gaming experience. Gambling is also a kind of betting and it totally depends on luck and how well you play. It has also been permitted by law. Gambling is basically played by people with an intention of earning extra money and any kind of material goods. Gambling is played all over the world. In some countries it is not permitted by law. Gaming is different from gambling. While gambling involves wagering, gaming does not involve wagering.

Online gaming has recently become famous. This is because there are many casinos that run online and one can also earn money as well as enjoy gaming simply by sitting at home. It does not require you to get out of the home on Sunday evenings. With the online casinos one can not only enjoy gaming but also spend time with the family. There are several kinds of games that one can enjoy at casinos. Even online one can enjoy playing games at casinos and also compete with other players. There are different slots that are run at several times of the day. One can easily log on at any of these online casinos and enjoy gaming.

At these online casinos one can play for real money as well as for virtual money. One can also become a member of these online casinos for a little amount of fee that is charged by these casinos. Gambling is basically for fun and excitement and to relieve oneself from the stress of a long and hectic day. So, one can easily log on at any of the sites and enjoy gaming and gambling experience.

Libertarians claim that their philosophical beliefs stem from the root word Liberte, which means freedom.

Freedom therefore must naturally include freedom of choice. So as a matter of principle, libertarians believe that gambling should fall under the realm of individual’s freedom to choose.

Although Libertarians come in different political colors and stripes, such as social libertarians, economic libertarians and others; in general libertarians inside political or media networks tend to implicitly advocate gambling as a means to fulfill an individual’s choice of action and fulfillment of desires.

Gambling is seen having its upside as well as downside as far as human and societal development in concerned.

The act of gambling can be a great teacher in learning intrigue, patience, mental agility, guardedness, and restraint. On the other hand gambling with reckless abandon and total disregard for ones own financial and emotional well being can lead to tragic consequences, including psychological trauma, trauma to the wallet and a persistent habit formation in reckless decision making.

Libertarians use reason and logic to try making a convincing case that gambling in itself is an amoral harmless act and individuals have to take responsibility for themselves whether they experience a good or adverse outcome from their gambling pursuits.

In the past members of US congress with libertarian beliefs have either advocated repeal of gambling restrictions and bans, or pursued a pro active strategy of advancing the cause of gambling by introducing bills to legalize and regulate gambling and draw revenues through taxation over gambling industry.

The chief protagonists in this libertarian crusade to repeal gambling prohibitions are conservative libertarian icon Ron Paul of Texas who is a Republican, and Democrat Barney Frank, a social libertarian icon and darling of same sex couples.

It remains to be seen whether Americans vote in favor of logic, reason and individual choice, or empiricism, which demands governmental and non-governmental intervention to regulate and/or prohibit gambling as a sinful destructive pursuit.

Indian subcontinent represents one fourth of humanity and there are five million North Americans who claim Subcontinent Heritage. Despite division into many countries Indian Subcontinent shares its cultural roots from its two great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Mahabharata is the world’s longest epic with a 100,000 versus and occupies the same iconic position in Indian Subcontinent as the Iliad and Odyssey are to the Europeans.

Like Iliad and Odyssey, Mahabharata’s backdrop is centered around a massive war. And guess what, the origins of war are in a gambling game!

It so happens that two royal families who share the same ancestry are competing with each other to occupy the throne near New-Delhi. One royal family represents evil, and the other royal family represents good.

The evil royals lure the good royals over a purportedly friendly game of gambling involving dices. Both families’ are good at dices, but the evil royals get luckier on the day of gambling.

The good royals begin well and win a few rounds, but as the game progresses the evil royals get the upper hand. The good royals then get too desperate and do not want to loose, so they keep raising the stakes in order to win back all that they lost, but the gods of ruin are smiling at them.

In quick succession they bet all their gold, their land, their royal claim to the throne, and even themselves to slavery, but they still don’t realize they have to stop. In a final act of desperation they bet their pretty wife to win back everything, but lo and behold they lose her too!

The wife is stripped naked in the gambling arena by the evil royals in the final act of humiliation. Having lost their wealth, power and even wife, the good royals decide to wage war against the evil royals to win back everything.

The story shows that in gambling a cool calculating mind is always better than desperation.

Gambling is as old as human race but online gambling is a recent phenomenon. Since the mass usage of internet began in 1990s, online gambling has gained a huge following with billions at stake.

The advantage of online gambling is that in principle one can play against anyone in the world at anytime. This provides a huge opportunity to test the skills against pretty much any online gambler and one gets to jump in joy or cry in their bathroom in the privacy of their home.  It is fast and convenient and one doesn’t have to get groped at the airport by travel police to fly to a gambling resort.

But online gambling has its limits. It is just monotonous gambling, that’s all, quite fit for addicts! For families and others who need the experience of visiting a new place, enjoying fine wood and drinks, and visit tourism worthy venues, online gambling will not cut it.

Resort gambling in cities like Las Vegas or Macau in China will always dominate the gambling world. Why? las Vegas attracts people from all over the world who seek beautiful concerts and dance/music/exotic performances, fine foods and drinks, rent fast exotic cars and saturate their spirits with all the razzle dazzle Vegas has to offer.

As Asian prosperity rises, there will be more Vegas like gambling resorts mushrooming in major Asian cities.

In 2009 Goldman Sachs predicted that the total size of online US gambling market could be as high as $12 Billion, but the actual market remains less than half of that due to restrictions and bans. According to New York Times, resort gambling in Las Vegas alone generated $12.8 Billion in 2007.

Resort Gambling has a distinct charm, and an overall wholesome experience not restricted to the act of gambling alone. Resort gambling will always win the hearts and minds of tourists, travellers and enthusiasts alike, and will continue to dominate the revenue share over online gambling.