Gambling and betting should be legalised?

Gambling and betting should be legalised?

Gambling is any activity where you risk money or materialistic goods in hope of greater return. The return is not guaranteed and vulnerability to loss makes gambling highly unpredictable. Proponents of gambling aggressively pitched for its legalization whereas opponents are furious over such an idea. In India gambling is banned and the argument is should we legalize gambling in India taking clue from other countries like USA, Britain etc.

For

- Gambling in form of betting is already allowed in sports like horse racing.

- Ban is causing huge revenue losses to Indian government, so legalization can check this loss.

- Legalizing makes registration for bookies mandatory and this institutionalized framework helps in effective monitoring of their activities by various agencies.

- The menace of black money generated can be used by terrorists and anti national elements in destabilizing country and pose serious threat to security agencies. So, its better to legalize and be able to exercise a better control.

- Geographical impediments are proving insignificant as many Indians are already putting money in legalized betting of western countries through internet.

- India can learn from western countries experience of legalized gambling and use it as per its own requirements.

Against:

- Gambling in sports may jeopardize the sportsmanship and the sports person can be easily lured by the bookies. IPL's match fixing scandal is the perfect example.

- Substantial portion of Indian population is uneducated about the technicalities of gambling, which affects their rationality of making choices and putting their savings vulnerable to loss.

- India cannot be compared to western countries owing to differences in development, education, internet penetration and effectiveness of law enforcing agencies. So we cannot expect the same outcome of legalized gambling in Indian case.

- Loss incurred because of gambling addiction to people (especially youth) can force them to path of unlawful activities degrading moral values of society.

Conclusion:

So any decision should not be only from economic perspective, but also from the lens of Indian cultural and moral values of which India boasts to the whole world. Any final outcome should be preceded by intensive consultations with all the stakeholders and concerned agencies.