Gambling as an Activity - Essay Example

Is gambling an acceptable form of leisure?” Name Course Institution Professor Date Introduction Gambling is an activity that involves money wagering or rather something that is materially valuable during an event whose outcome is characterized with uncertainty with the key intention being to additional material goods and/or money (Becker and Murphy 2001, p.10). This activity’s outcome to be realized takes only a very short period. Whether gambling should be acceptable within the society has been quite controversial issue with different states globally legalizing the activity and others terming it as an illegal activity. Leisure time also known free time is that which is usually spent without doing work, domestic chores and business. It may also refer to times when an individual is through the very necessary activities and has nothing else that is engaging. Gambling may be a leisure activity but the idea of whether it is an acceptable form for leisure raises concerns. Gambling may be viewed as an acceptable form of leisure for various reasons. People who do not know much about this activity are bound to think that it involves bad aspects. They may even have their deductions those individuals who engage in this activity as a form of leisure acquire habits that are not good. This may entirely not be the fact. The activity is understood to give its players pleasure at different ages (Bergler 2002, p. 33). Realistically gambling may be understood to be a form of leisure that is positive where people get entertained. It acts as a source of joy for individuals who in their old age wish to engage in some entertaining activity which they find interesting. From this perspective, gambling is demonstrated as being an acceptable form of leisure. It is the desire of each and every individual to undergo personal growth and development in all the aspects of the life including their mental abilities. This desire necessitates that individuals should engage in activities that foster such personal growth and development. Gambling being an acceptable form of leisure provides a chance that allows individuals to enhance their mental abilities. The activity is usually very mentally involving hence; the players need to think critically before making any steps or decisions while gambling. The game makes one to develop focus. It is a recommendation that individuals while gambling they should think their way through during each tough moment that they encounter while gambling. This activity therefore shows quite a high level of acceptability as far as it being a form of leisure is concerned. Another perspective that implicates gambling to be a form of leisure activity relates to the benefits that accrue from the entire activity. There is promotion of care and love for one another among the players due to the fact that, the players who understand the game properly offer help to those who need it. This is an act of kindness that promotes peace among people without any sense of self-centeredness. Apart from the players benefiting from the activity, there is an extended kind of benefit that further concerns the entire society. One of the benefits is the fact that there exist casino halls, which give charity to organizations, and institutions that are in need (Dunbar and Barret 2007, p.66). This is a reflection that the activity is a form of leisure and which is acceptable. Gambling offers individuals an opportunity to engage in something constructive and which is quite beneficial in their lives both mentally and materially. It acts as a way through people avoid being idle. It is not itself an immoral or rather social evil activity but an activity that is positive and through which individuals as well as the entire society or community reap quite a wide range benefits (Bergler 2002, p.30). People who engage in gambling are safeguarded from having thoughts to engage in socially evil activities such as the abuse of drugs and engaging in corruption dealings such as drug trafficking. Gambling therefore proves to be an activity that gives people the opportunity to experience life in a positive way that is both quite enjoyable and entertaining not forgetting the benefits that the winners get from winning after playing in the game. Gambling is thus an acceptable way fro spending leisure time. The relationship among people within any given society or community is quite important. People in the society need each other from different perspectives of life hence the need to develop cohesive relationships through activities such as gambling. Gambling as a game presents an opportunity for social interaction. It is a sociable activity whereby, people meet and get chance to know interact while playing the game (Bergler 2002, p.27). People get to appreciate each others gift in the game. Most essentially the activity forms the basis of strong relationships among individuals that may extend out side the game. Players thus influence positively in each others life not only on the playing table but also in the outside life. A good example is people who meet during their gambling experiences and later become great business partners. Gambling therefore is viewed to be an acceptable form of spending free time. On the other hand, gambling may be viewed as being an unacceptable from of leisure from a sociologist and psychologist point of view. They see gambling as not being fit to be exercised during free time as it may result to a severe consequence of enslaving people and at the same time making them to lose their money (Dunbar and Barret 2007, p.46). Video lottery terminals facilitate gambling. For instance, slot machines are known to make people have the belief that the winning combinations are about to happen in order for one to continue gambling and put cash into the machine. The implication therefore is that these machines are very fast different from lottery tickets whereby an individual for about a week in order to know the results and asses whether they have won. For the video lottery terminal, the rates of play, returns, and feedback are instant. When an individual wins, they are usually more attempted and likely to continue gambling. Before realizing it, they discover that they have spent hours on the machine with credits leading to quite incredible bets that may lead to loss of huge amounts of money. In this capacity, the machines are seen to enslave people or rather the gambler. This makes gambling as an unacceptable form of leisure. Gambling during free time can have quite some dire consequences to an individual extending into their personal and family life. This may be relating to the aspect of addiction. To begin with, an individual may lack time to spend with their family since the only thing they think of during their leisure time is gambling (Becker and Murphy 2001, p.57). Following this addiction people may lose all their money, their property as well as jobs. They can also lose their wives and kids. Mostly it is men who seen as to engage in gambling. From such impacts of gambling during leisure time, an individual may think and attempt to commit suicide. Some may begin abusing drugs and taking alcohol in a bid to forget their problems. It may also be the beginning of engaging in criminal acts as well as stealing of money (Miller and Schwartz 2004, p.127). To these extents, an individual may end up in prison just because they engaged in gambling during their leisure time. It is therefore quite an unacceptable for gambling to be a form of leisure. Spending leisure time in Gambling makes individuals to misuse their money. Gamblers tend to take money that is meant for other economic purposes such as investment and using it for gambling. They may also take money meant for the upkeep of the family or for charity purposes and using it to gamble hoping that they would make wins. This is quite a risky thing to do which results to very severe impacts psychologically if one loses. The innocent family suffers experiencing difficulties that could otherwise have been avoided just because of lack of a sense of prioritization and direction of putting money into the right purpose. This is a clear demonstration that gambling is but an unacceptable form of leisure. Gambling is an activity that requires individuals to have money at their disposal. This is an activity which not everyone may be able to engage in. Due to the promising notion of wealth creation through gambling, poor people are usually tempted to engage gambling during their free time after they are through with their works and receiving their small payments. This is quite a risky gamble for the poor as much as they may place their hope in the activity or rather game. In this case, the impact of gambling for the poor in their leisure time is that there is reinforcement of poverty due to the fact that gamblers who are poor take very great risks in their hopes of having big wins (Becona 2000, p.180). This activity therefore seems to be unacceptable way for spending leisure time. Use of leisure in gambling activities presents an opportunity for problems that may even necessitate treatment in the long run. This makes the activity as an unacceptable form of leisure. The shutting down of the video lottery terminals and the number of individual who seek treatment due to gambling addiction and other gambling related problems are related. For instance, the turning off, of video machines in South Dakota, had a direct influence on the number of individuals who received treatment due to gambling problems. The number of patients significantly reduced (Miller and Schwartz 2004, p.132). The implication herein is that from a general perspective gambling presents problems that are serious enough necessitating treatments. However, among the people suffering from gambling problems only a few are seen to seek treatment, a bigger percentage of gamblers do not realize that they are addicts hence continue with gambling. In the world today some nations have legalized gambling as being a mainstream activity for leisure with a good example being America (Bergler 2002, p.24). There is relentless advertisement both in the broadcast and print media of lotteries. Such themes as park atmospheres have been emphasized in the major casinos in a bid to promote themselves as adult correspondents in the land of Disney. Religious organizations have shifted their dependence on gaming revenues that have already been legalized. This activity of gambling is thus being quite optioned by many people in America during their leisure time. This being the case both sociologist and psychologists have raised concerns from intense analysis of the activity and the related costs that emanate from its pursuit from a social perspective. Some of the social cost due to gambling just to mention a few include; lost productivity costs, regulatory costs, direct crime costs that would include incarceration, apprehension and adjudication cost and further costs as family disintegration and suicide. In conclusion, it is quite essential for people to have the necessary knowledge and skills in regards to all forms of gambling. As discussed spending leisure in gambling may be good and the same be quite bad. It is thus important for people to weight options and take their time as to how best they should spent their leisure times and outcomes of their activities. For example, with gambling in the case of video lottery terminals, they usually have most of the winning combinations removed hence with such knowledge there is no way an individual may engage in this activity in their free time. It reflects quite a high degree of fraudulence. It is also important for people to learn to prioritize activities and what comes first and what should come last as they plan on how spent their free time. This aids in ensuring that they do not misuse their resources especially finances during leisure time. As much gambling may be seen as a way of entertainment and creation of additional money, as well as material goods it should viewed as an unacceptable form of leisure. In my opinion it is due to the fact that is better of that during free time one engages in activities that yield positive outcomes and not necessarily in those that lead joggling between the outcomes of whether they will be favorable or unfavorable. References Becker, G and Murphy, K 2001, ‘A Theory of Rational Addiction’, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 96, no. 4. Bergler, E 2002, The Psychology of Gambling, New York, Hill and Wang. Becona, E 2000, ‘Prevalence Surveys and Pathological Gambling: The Cases of Germany, Holland and Spain’, Journal of Gambling Studies, vol.12, no. 2, p. 179-192. Dunbar, R and Barret, L 2007, The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Oxford, Oxford University press. Miller, W and Schwartz, M 2004, ‘Casino gambling and street crime’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, p. 124–137. Read More