For all the negative reasons I used to hear about gambling as a teen (destroys families, leads to crime, people lose control, money laundering), I was surprised to hear that Singapore was setting up some of the best largest casinos in 2010. Singapore prides itself to be a model city, and it’s Prime Minister apparently once said casinos would enter the country over his dead body!
So, what IS really wrong with gambling?
Will Governments realize it’s a another valuable source of revenue?
In countries like India, where the problem has consistently been an inability to widen the tax paying base, yet there is such a large parallel economy, is legalized gambling one way to start collecting taxes indirectly?
Are there online mechanics that can help prevent some of the traditional problems ? Imposing time- and quantity- based limits, authentication, accept payments from debit cards only unless additional identification is provided?
Will we see online gambling opening up in the country, as is anticipated in the US this year?
Would you want to see gambling becoming legalized ; why or why not?