Should all gambling be legalized?

[Platypus]

I voted yes, but, i've reconsidered. In Australia, gambling is quite common-and so is gambling addiction. You'd struggle to go 5 klilometers anywhere in melbourne and not find a pokie; and basically a mini-casino on your doorstep. My closest is about 500m down the street. Then you have the big casinos, like Crown about 10 minutes away.

When I catch the tram in the mornings, you always see someone get on at crown who has lost everything. Often, they're old Chinese males, but every group is affected. They'll be wearing an old beanie, dirty clothes, be wrinkled all over and quite often, crying.

Then, you have a look at any pub, whether it has pokies or not, and there'll be old blokes betting on the dogs, or the horse racing, and they'll lose more then they win too.

Gambling is a huge problem when it's a common occurrence-and compared to allowing 'all gambling', melbourne's positively totalitarian about it. I must retract my vote, and put it in the no column. Gambling should be significantly reduced, not given the means for more people to lose everything. Games of pure chance should be banned, like Pokies. Only games of some sort of skill (card games, sports betting) should be allowed.

[Platypus]

there is a huge difference between a 'gamble' on settling a new continent and putting $200,000 a year into a pokie, half of which goes to the government, the other half to a casino, none to you.

I have no major problem with games of skill-poker, sports betting, etc. But [pure chance, like pokie...it's just plain out BAD. It's just bad. that's all there is to it. And whilst generally i'm not a huge supporter of government intereference, pokies should be banned, destroyed, obliterated. It'll never happen of course, because governments are hooked on the revenue, and don't really try to stop people becoming addicted.

Gambling is one of the main reasons I don't support legalisation of hard illicit drugs. Besides their bad qualities, the government will get hooked on them and make no real effort to lessen usage.