No one could imagine that governments across the world are debating the thorny problem of new or renewed gaming bills out of a desire to provide an extra element of available entertainment to their citizens. The driving force behind all these parliamentary hours is monetary more than anything else. Tightening controls to prevent money laundering and offering more safeguards for the gambling public may be part of it, but it is the gaming tax revenue that is the carrot dangling in front of administrations.

A warning has been issued to the Australian state governments that they should cease to be so dependent on tax dollars from the gaming industry. If they do not, it could be envisaged in the near future that government would have to actively promote gambling in order to make their budgets. Across the United States more and more local authorities are debating whether or not to allow gambling venues as they see money leaving their region to be gambled in neighbouring states with legalized gaming.

In Singapore the government sees a destination casino on their territory as being a boost to tourist numbers and revenues, as well as persuading some of the Singaporeans who gamble abroad to stay and gamble at home. Many governments come up against fierce lobbying by the churches to stop possible legislation, such as in Mexico and the Philippines.

Governments who have already legalized gambling in their countries are loath to lose the income from it. In Malaysia around RM1.8 billion is collected from the 1,822 gaming companies licensed in the country. The government there stopped issuing new licences in 1995 but do not intend to further limit the gambling regulations. They had reduced the number of weekly draws from five to three, but quoted a drop in government revenue by RM620 million a year should they only hold one draw a week, an amount they were unwilling to forego. They also saw a further reduction as an incitement to illegal gambling networks.

Worldwide the incidence of gambling is on the rise, according to official figures. Where there is no legal gaming, or partial legal gaming, there are only estimates of the numbers of people who gamble illegally and who may or may not become addicted. In any society some people will always have something better to do with their time than gambling, some will enjoy the entertainment they derive from the activity, and some mistakenly will see gambling as the means to pursue a dream of riches.

In the US maybe the legacy of religious zealots has the edge, as the government there seems to have embarked on a dangerous course that threatens the online sector with a criminal tag, which would drive it underground. In all countries it is better to legislate, assess and control than to leave gambling in the hands of the criminals and corrupt politicians and police forces, and much better to use gambling revenues for social projects than to spend public money on the pursuit of people breaking the rules.

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