Sports Bet Not Good

3 Pages 767 Words

Controversial Issue Model Essay Based on Viewing—“Internet Gambling”

Gambling is big business in America. Not only are casinos concentrated in both Las Vegas, Nevada, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, they have also popped up on riverboats and Native American reservations all over the country. Additionally, state-run lotteries and horse racing exist all over the nation, and billions of dollars are made and lost on a regular basis. However, the most popular and common form of gambling in America, sports betting, is illegal in 48 states, but occurs nonetheless and does not contribute to the tax base, much to the dismay of governmental officials. Sports betting is so common and popular that Internet gambling sites have been started to address the need Americans seem to have, illicit though it may be, to bet on games. I believe that if the government sanctions other forms of gambling and profits from them, they should do the same for sports.
Although sports betting is illegal for Americans unless they are in a casino or legal betting parlor in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, some Internet gambling sites operate outside the United States to escape its jurisdiction. Both the federal government and individual state governments make tax and profit revenue on legal gambling dollars, and they fund such diverse programs as education, senior citizen initiatives, highway repair, and, ironically, gambling counseling with that money. Instead of spending untold millions of dollars fighting illegal sports betting organizations, they should legalize sports betting, taking the profits out of criminal hands and put it into the tax base. The government should establish a unified system for nationwide sports betting parlors on and off the Internet, and remove all of that business from both offshore companies and organized crime.
It is clear that people will bet on games whether the government likes it or not, so it should create a profit, not a loss....