Gambling in the USA

Gambling is defined by Wikipedia as “wagering of money or something of material value on an event of uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning extra money or goods”. The term gambling is also defined as “taking risks with hope of something favorable as an outcome.” In short, to gamble is to take chances. Some people think gamblers are courageous, not afraid to lose, but some think gamblers are fools, not being sure of the results of something they did.

Gambling is one men’s oldest past time. Archeological evidences had shown that even the oldest cavemen also fancied gambling. There are cave drawings that suggested early gambling activities and dice-like objects dating back 40,000 years ago called “astragali” were found. Historical records and anthropological studies of the ancient civilizations such as Rome, Greek, Egypt and Chinese also offer evidences that gambling is practiced back then. And as early as the 14th century, records showed gambling was outlawed when King Henry VIII of England found out that many of his soldiers spent most of their times gambling rather than practicing drills and preparing for battles.

The US, however, have a rich and colorful gambling history. Colonies from the first settlers are the first to introduce gambling in the early years. There were no large-scale restrictions for gambling by then and the British colonies used lotteries to raise revenues. However, a law that restricted the lotteries on 1769 became a huge issue that the American Revolution was ignited.