Gambling survives in the United States as a restriction that is followed prolifically across the country. Also known as ‘gambling’, it has managed to rake in as much as $84.65 million based on 2005 gross revenue. Statistically speaking, gambling generates more than 354,000 jobs and a whopping $5.2 billion in revenue annual state and local
However, despite the dozens of profits made from gambling, certain organizations claim a contrary view towards gambling, saying that it leads to corruption, compulsive gambling, and higher crime rates.
The ‘game’ is followed across the country, from church bingo to multi-million dollar poker tournaments. It offers a variety of gaming categories (as referred to by the American Gaming Association), including card rooms, commercial casinos, charity games (and bingo), Indian casinos, legal gambling, and lotteries.
Gambling is legal under United States federal law. However, all states may exercise the freedom to ban gambling in their respective states, if they feel it should be considered illegal. If state lotteries are excluded from this ban, virtually every state in the United States derives a portion of its winnings from gambling. However, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming are the eight distinguished states that do not offer lottery tickets.
A card room offers a variety of card games for the public to play. Since many card games played here are variations of poker (eg Texas Hold’em), a card room is in most cases also called a poker room. Casinos, on the other hand, include slot machines or video poker, and table games such as craps, which are unlikely to be found in a card room. Approximately 450 commercial casinos in 17 different states (some of which include California, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, and North Carolina) have been registered with gross gaming revenues of $28.93 billion in 2004.
California is home to Card Room gaming treasures, with over a hundred clubs having already been licensed here in 2006. Among them is a card room at Hollywood Park Racetrack, a thoroughbred racetrack in Inglewood, California. Some other large card rooms are at Bay 101 and Garden City in San Jose, the Commerce Casino in Commerce, and the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens.
Some Native American tribes prefer to operate gambling and casinos on tribal land to provide employment and income for tribal civilization. Tribal Gambling (also known as Indian Gambling) has had a share of over $14.5 billion as its revenue collection from approximately 350 casinos. In an effort to preserve its sovereignty, the revenues collected are used for government operations, economic development, and the well-being of the people. “Tribal gaming is regulated at the tribal, state and federal level.”
Of all the states, Nevada is perhaps the only state that practices statewide gambling. The others have their game portals confined to defined geographic areas, such as Atlantic City, New Jersey or Tunica, Mississippi; or some of the Native American reservations.
