Gambling often has terrible consequences for families and communities. According to the Council on Compulsive Gambling, five percent of all gamblers become addicted. Many of those turn to crime and commit suicide. We all pay for those tragedies. Harm to Businesses and the Economy.
Internet gambling is likely to have a deleterious effect on businesses and the economy.
It's redistributed among the rest of us in the form of increased prices on consumer goods. . . . The odds can be easily manipulated and there is no guarantee that fair payouts will occur. Further, gambling on the Internet is apt to lead to criminal behavior. A University of Illinois study found that for every dollar that states gain from gambling, they pay out three dollars in social and criminal costs. In just one year, that number more than quadrupled, going from about 60 in late 1997 to now more than 260 according to some estimates.