Gambling: The Problems and History of Addiction, Helpfulness, and Tragedy

Recently there have been a lot of studies on the subject of gambling and games play. The average uninformed individual might wonder “Why, it really is not that big of a deal?” and think that it is just a small poker game or a little bet over a sporting event. There are so many more aspects to gambling than just the little games and bets. 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, such as lotteries. The lotteries help out by contributing to government programs such as education, military, etc. To help people understand gambling and games play it is necessary that they learn about the history, the viewpoints, and the cold hard facts. The controversies of gambling have not just come up recently. There have been unofficial records of gambling occurring back in the Ancient Greek times. There is a great history of gambling and games play that tells a tale of its own.

Gambling has been around for ages and is rumored to have been used in ancient Greek times. The biggest and first crap game says that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades rolled dice for shares of the Universe (Puzo 76). Some say the first form of gambling was found in biblical times. They portray Adam and Eve’s choice to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden as humankind’s first real gamble (Thompson 5). This was their gamble to see what would happen when they ate the fruit. There is a lot of controversy when it comes to gambling in the United States. In some states it’s legal and in others it is not. There were four key time periods in the history of gambling and games play known as waves: State-Sanctioned Lotteries, National Lotteries, State-Operated Lotteries, and The Triumph of Casino gaming.

The first wave of gambling and games play started in 1607 and lasted until the 1840’s. The early colonies had very different attitudes towards gambling and were not as open about it as in recent times (Dunstan). In the first wave