Introduction:
The term gambling has had many different meanings depending on the cultural and historical context in which it is used. Currently, in the first world countries, it has an economic definition meaning wagering money or something of material value. on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods
Gambling: Benefits
Proponents of the view that gambling has some benefits say that gambmling has the powerful ability to foster economic development. For example, Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world, has shown impressive job growth, developed into a major city with a low tax burden that many state and local governments look at with envy, and has spawned significant private and public sector investment. Fuirthermore, The economic impacts of legalized gambling are tangible and quantifiable. The basic economic impacts include the construction of a casino which leads to many jobs for construction employees and suppliers, employees to staff the casino, and the suppliers for an ongoing casino. Multiplier effects then ripple throughout the overall economy. Building a casino creates new jobs, such as a card dealer, in the sense that they did not exist before. Since building and running a gambling facility doesn’t create wealth, merely transfering it, the benefit for a region is if the transfers are from outside of the region. This stimulus or beneficial impact could happen two main ways:
· Tourists from abroad spend more time and money within the region. For example, if foreign tourists changed their travel patterns so that rather than coming to both California and Las Vegas, they only go to California.
· Local residents who used to travel outside of the region and gamble now stay within the region.
Gambling also has positive effects on the economic development of whole communities. This might be the reason behind developing cities like Atlantic City. It used to be a slum by the sea, and now, it’s a slum by the sea with casinos. Gaming in Atlantic City, like Las Vegas, has been a successful economic development tool. It has resulted in the building of many large facilities and over forty thousand jobs have been created. In Mississipi’s Tunica county, also called America’s Ethiopia, ever since gambling was made legal, the welfare rate was cut by a third and the proportion of people receiving food stamps has fallen. In addition, Unemployment is down to 4.9 percent, its lowest rate in nearly two decades.
Horse racing, which is another form of gambling , also has positive effects on the economy.
In a study conducted in Carlifonia on the horse industry, the following impacts were noted:
· The industry generates more than $3 billion each year for the agribusiness, tourism and entertainment economies of California.
· Nearly 25,000 Californians work either directly or indirectly in the industry.
· The industry has declined in recent years as horse racing activity has shifted to states with lower state and local taxes or fees.
· The state’s share of pari-mutuel receipts is three times higher than the national average.
· Approximately 4,000 jobs have been lost in the last five years [Gould, 1996].
In Wisconsin, another stud revealsthat Indian gambling has major positive economic impacts:
The study gave out the following findings:
· The revenues to the gaming operations were $275 million.
· Employment at the casinos totaled 4,500. A significant portion, 1,400, were unemployed prior to obtaining casino employment and 20 percent came from the welfare rolls. Tribal employment supported by casinos constituted 70 percent.
· The multiplier effect led to another 1,500 jobs.
· Employees paid $2 million in federal income taxes and almost $4 million in Social Security and pension funds [Wisconsin, 1993].
This study, along with many other studies supported by the Indian tribes, show the large economic impact of Native American gaming. These studies accurately and exhaustively calculate the direct economic impact of Indian gaming. The Indian casinos pay out wages, social security and Medicare taxes, and federal taxes. Even though the tribes are exempt from state and local taxation, many of their employees pay state and local taxes. In conclusion, Gambling has become a very accepted way for governments to raise funds [Wisconsin, 1993].
Gambling: Costs
Gaming can have a negative impact on rural areas. One study conducted in Carlifonia revealed that the California state lottery was in effect a $711 million anti-rural development program.. This is brcause this figure of 711 million was arrived at by totaling the amount of money taken out of rural areas through lottery ticket sales, minus the funds that come back into the schools in those areas [Goldman, 1994]
Gaming also has been claimed to impact negatively on property values. According to industry material, casino gaming leads to higher property values. This is supported anecdotally by stories of non-gaming firms leaving towns. The closing of small businesses may be another symptom, although both could be a product of a substitution effect as well, meaning that expenditures for gambling were substituted for other goods. The data and anecdotes from Colorado suggest that the impact can be disruptive and create a land-rush type atmosphere, at least initially [Harrah’s Ent, 1995].
Abortion
An abortion is the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. This can occur spontaneously as a miscarriage or be artificially induced by chemical, surgical, or other means. “Abortion” can refer to an induced procedure at any point during human pregnancy; it is sometimes medically defined as either miscarriage or induced termination before the point of viability.
Abortion: Benefits
Despite the claims of anti-choice ideologues, many demonstrable health benefits — physical, emotional, and social — have accrued to Americans since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in its decision.
· Women have obtained abortions earlier in pregnancy when health risks to them are at the lowest. Statistics show that in 1973, only 36 percent of abortions were performed at or before eight weeks of pregnancy whereas today, 88 percent of all legal abortions are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and 60.5 percent take place within the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Only 1.4 percent occur after 20 weeks [CDC, 2006].
· Deaths from abortion declined dramatically during the past two decades. Statistics reveal that in 1965, when abortion was still illegal nationwide except in cases of life endangerment, at least 193 women died from illegal abortions, and illegal abortion accounted for nearly 17 percent of all deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth in that year. In 1973, the risk of dying from an abortion was 3.4 deaths per 100,000 legal abortions. This rate fell to 1.3 by 1977. Today, the risk of death associated with abortion increases with the length of pregnancy, from one death for every one million vacuum aspiration abortions at eight or fewer weeks to 8.9 deaths after 20 weeks’ gestation. The risk of death from medication abortion through 63 days’ gestation is about one per 100,000 procedures. Comparatively, the risk of death from miscarriage is about one per 100,000. And the risk of death associated with childbirth is about 10 times as high as that associated with all abortion. After 20 weeks’ gestation there is no statistically significant difference in maternal mortality rates between terminating a pregnancy by abortion and carrying it to term.
· Medically safe, legal abortion has had a profound impact on American women and their families. For example, couples at risk of having children affected with severe and often fatal genetic disorders have been willing to conceive because of the availability of amniocentesis and safe, legal abortion. Also, Today, abortion is one of the most commonly performed clinical procedures, and fewer than 0.3 percent of women undergoing legal abortion procedures sustain a serious complication [Milunsky, 1989].
· The health and well-being of women and children suffer the most in states that have the most stringent anti-abortion laws. Compared to pro-choice states, anti-abortion states spend far less money per child on a range of services such as foster care, education, welfare, and the adoption of children who have physical and mental disabilities [Schroedel, 2000].
Abortion: Costs
Recent research from Norway and New Zealand has reported an association between abortion and subsequent mental health problems. The research claimed that Six months after pregnancy termination, women who had a miscarriage were more distressed than women who had abortions. However, after five years, women who had abortions were more likely to suffer anxiety and intrusive thoughts of the event than women who miscarried [Throckmorton].
Some women also experience sadness, guilt, or other emotional reactions,although these feelings usually go away quickly. Serious psychiatric disturbances (such as psychosis or serious depression) occur rarely and less frequently afterabortion than they do after childbirth.
Other abortion effects are as follows:
(1) You will be more likely to bleed in the first three months of future pregnancies.
(2) You will be less likely to have a normal delivery in future pregnancies.
(3) You will need more manual removal of placenta more often and there will be more complications with expelling the baby and its placenta.
(4) Your next baby will be twice as likely to die in the first few months of life.
(5) Your next baby will be three to four times as likely to die in the last months of his first year of life.
(6) Your next baby may have a low birth weight.
(7) Your next baby is more likely to be born prematurely with all the dangerous and costly problems that entails.
Reference:
Russell Gould, “An Economic Analysis of the California Horse Racing Industry” Prepared for the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, The Federation of California Racing Associations, Inc. And The Thoroughbred Owners of California, July 1, 1996.
Wisconsin Indian Gaming Association and the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service, “Economic Benefits of American Indian Gaming Facilities in Wisconsin,” March 1993.
George Goldman, “The California State Lottery and Rural Areas,” Western Wire, Fall 1994, p. 21.
“Effects of Casino Gaming on Property Values and Property Taxes,” Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., 1995, p. 1
Medical and Social Health Benefits Since Abortion Was Made Legal in the U.S.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/abortion-access/health-benefits-6131.htm
Schroedel, Jean Reith. (2000). Is the Fetus a Person? A Comparison of Policies across the Fifty States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Milunsky, Aubrey. (1989). Choices, Not Chances: An Essential Guide to Your Heredity and Health. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
CDC — U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006, November 24). “Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2003.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 55(SS-11).
Throckmorton,W. [ Ph.D].Uninformed Consent: Abortion and Mental Health Consequences
