A controversial question

[peter0425]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

But my answer for this question is yes there should be no problem with the government making use of the gambling industry because to me the gambling industry is just almost the same as other industries where the country makes their money from like tourism for example. All the industries have its own negative effects and gambling has too so I do not see any reason why the govt shouldn't be taking advantage of the gambling industry,

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

Your question is not a controversial one, it is very simple to answer, yes, they can use the money realized from gambling for the community development, we are the ones paying  for all these, so we should be able to also have access to the benefits that may comes from it, that is the same way the utility of tax is being done, they use the money in building the society.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

If they restrict gambling, how then do they want to get dividends from it? Of course they cannot. Only government that are open to gambling within their country can benefit from it and just like every other taxes collected from other parastatals, taxes from gambling should be redirected towards bettering the lives of the people because it's still them who pay for it.

Government who restrict gambling lose out on the benefits to foreign crypto casinos since restrictions don't stop people from gambling. There is always a way out.

[batang_bitcoin]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

But my answer for this question is yes there should be no problem with the government making use of the gambling industry because to me the gambling industry is just almost the same as other industries where the country makes their money from like tourism for example. All the industries have its own negative effects and gambling has too so I do not see any reason why the govt shouldn't be taking advantage of the gambling industry,

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

Aside from actual commissions or benefits, the government is already earning big from the taxation that they are getting from the casinos. It's important that it's also returned to the people to avail basic services because that's how an economy and a country should work. They allow the casinos to earn, and so the casinos will also return in form of taxation to the government for which the government is the steward of the money that they earn from these huge taxations.

[acroman08]

Isn't it the norm for a government to make a profit from industries like this in order to help fund its country? So why would this be controversial? If an industry is operating inside a country, it is only appropriate for the government to want to profit from it.

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

But they wouldn't get benefits from it if they restricted gambling. Perhaps you mean heavily regulated?

[X-ray]

If i were the government, i would make gambling legal. So it can be taxed and money won't be going to the offshore or abroad gambling industries. There's no wrong by using it for public service. However, I know how hypocrite our government is now.

They allowed to tax the cigarette that's obviously killing people, but banning gambling? I know anything has bad and good site, but that's sound unfair, right?

Imagine the money from banning gambling will go to the offshore instead of going to the country itself.

[Hardyrobust]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

But my answer for this question is yes there should be no problem with the government making use of the gambling industry because to me the gambling industry is just almost the same as other industries where the country makes their money from like tourism for example. All the industries have its own negative effects and gambling has too so I do not see any reason why the govt shouldn't be taking advantage of the gambling industry,

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

There is nothing wrong with the government making profit from gambling and use it for public service. But , op the way you sound someone may think that you talking about government investing in gambling or using public funds to gamble and then used the profit from it for public service. Instead of using the word profit , it should be money that the government generated from casino that do pay tax. This tax money can be used for public service. If you talking about government gambling in other to make profit them it is wrong.

[dimonstration]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

Who consider at as controversial while gambling industry is a legit business therefore charging taxes is legal and using it for public service is the main purpose of taxes.

I will be happy if government use it on public service rather than completely banning gambling without any profit from it while citizens is still able to do online gambling through VPN use in online casino.

The only sad thing is government use the money for corruption rather than public service.

[bitbollo]

They are already doing this. As any kind of industry&business the State try to regulate. This implies also collect funds/taxes and so on.
I would not see as controversial anyway. If there is a "public force" and you're using their premise (likewise physical gambling shop) or using their money for gambling it's pretty clear they pretend some fees/to regulate. In my country has been introduced a specific legilslation to avoid addiction issue.

[MArsland]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

Your question is not a controversial one, it is very simple to answer, yes, they can use the money realized from gambling for the community development, we are the ones paying  for all these, so we should be able to also have access to the benefits that may comes from it, that is the same way the utility of tax is being done, they use the money in building the society.

OP question can be controversial or not, depending on which country it's directed at. So, if it's a country that has banned gambling from the start, it's clearly highly controversial, meaning it conflicts with established norms. Conversely, if it's directed at a country that's generally open to gambling, it's considered a normal question.
If you look at the OP answer, it seems like he is trying to break the existing norms because of the profits that can be made from gambling, right?

Let's say country A essentially prohibits gambling and has implemented measures, restrictions, and sanctions against its citizens who gamble. In other words, if gambling continues to occur, it falls within the realm of individual responsibility.

So, the OP needs to clarify the direction in which this question is directed?

[joeperry]

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

As per my experience in my country, the effect of gambling is really devastating. It's true that they earn profit through tourism, etc. but the target of our government were its own people and honestly you can see a lot of ads, influencers and you can easily play legally in the built in online wallet (we commonly used in the Philippines) and a lot of people are getting poorer and honestly destroying lives and family until recently they banned it. I think there should be a certain restrictions in playing gambling, even though the government is making profit out if it, it's also their responsibility to take care of its people (not unless they just doing it for themselves, which is pretty common in our country lol).

It is indeed that the gambling sector could generate income to a country but I think if the negative effect is heavier than the positive effect then they should set some restrictions or probably change their target market, probably other country to increase tourism.

[MAAManda]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

That's not a controversial question, gambling is now an industry, therefore, if they make good money, then the government has the right to get taxes from it. In our capital city (Jakarta), gambling policies were once regulated, although the majority ultimately opposed them for religious reasons. However, the impact of this policy was quite positive, with many public facilities being built.

[Hazink]

Governments making profit from gambling. Are they the ones running the gambling operation? You can't make a profit from business that you don't own or manage, unless you are referring to government-owned casinos. If not, the right wording, it should be getting revenue or taxes from gambling.


I don't see anything wrong with the government generating revenue from the gambling industry and channeling it into good public use where it will benefit everyone intact. I have read some budget which gambling industry is also part of the revenue generation they have included in their plan.

[Peanutswar]

To operate to a specific country the gambling casino must need to have their license to operate of course and they need to apply also need to consider the terms and conditions base on the contract provided and we knew that also included tax payment and of course its the countries money so they need to use that in a way to serve help and ease the life of the people in the country. If and only if they really serve the country and not just like other politicians right there who are corrupts.

[bettercrypto]

In our country, there's also gambling under a charity program run by our government. The problem with our current government is that online casinos have become even more rampant. Why? Because even illegal ones are being promoted by social media influencers we have here.

And what's worse is that some online casinos are owned by politicians who operate illegally, hiding behind different names. In other words, they have both legal and illegal online casinos. Although the government benefits from legal casinos through taxes paid to our government, of course, the illegal ones don't pay any taxes.

[btc78]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

But my answer for this question is yes there should be no problem with the government making use of the gambling industry because to me the gambling industry is just almost the same as other industries where the country makes their money from like tourism for example. All the industries have its own negative effects and gambling has too so I do not see any reason why the govt shouldn't be taking advantage of the gambling industry,

It will only be hypocritical if they are restricting gambling but wanting to get benefits from it.

There's no controversial in that statement to be honest, maybe government around the world, even progressive one as already doing it. Instead of banning gambling, they even acknowledge it and then tax casinos and uses the profit for their infrastructure.

Admit it or not, there are also positive things that gambling can bring.

We can all see it in Macau, they uses gambling to fuel their economy.

[Fortify]

Why wouldn't they? If they allow gambling, which the majority of the world does not have a problem with - only countries with a certain religion seem to be offended by it - then it is just a normal business that should be paying tax. What is weird is when the customer has to declare and arrange their own taxes in any situation involving gambling, like you'll find in America, when it should simply be taken out at the start or end of the process automatically. I don't know why you class it as "taking advantage of the gambling industry" instead of just normal business practice - they help contribute to the economy of the country but also help to maintain the facilities that benefit them like the police, road networks, etc.

[Finestream]

Some may consider this a controversial question: Should governments be making profit from the gambling industry and use said profit for public services?

You’re the one making it sound controversial, when in reality it’s already normal now. There are even countries that used to ban gambling but later lifted it after realizing how much money this industry brings. That means more tax revenue they can use for public services and that’s a good thing.

Even better if those earnings actually go to the right places, unlike in countries like the Philippines where corrupt officials usually end up collecting the revenue instead.

[rat03gopoh]

The controversy lies not in the gambling activity itself, but in how the regulations are carefully and strictly enforced. Imagine if a poor country with high corruption relaxed gambling restrictions without specific limitations. Let's say anyone was free to gamble without financial level restrictions, and then gambling taxes were distributed only to state officials. That would seem like exploitation of the common people.

[tygeade]

my answer for this question is yes there should be no problem with the government making use of the gambling industry because to me the gambling industry is just almost the same as other industries where the country makes their money from like tourism for example. All the industries have its own negative effects and gambling has too so I do not see any reason why the govt shouldn't be taking advantage of the gambling industry

No, in my opinion, government should not touch any sinful business for the development of their country. Gambling is sinful in some religion and in some tradition; similarly when considering the dangers of gambling addiction, we do not need to justify how cruel that gambling is to an entire family.

So when a government is willing to work for their own people, they must think about all the consequences as well. Selling drugs or guns also might be a profitable business for a country but they may fireback over the time and I am not seeing any big differences between gambling and gun business. I may sound too harsh but the reality of gambling addiction must be more harsher than you could imagine. Only the family members of an addicted gambler could explain better on how cruel gambling is.