I have always thought that gambling is an economic waste. (And for lots of non-economic reasons as well, I don't support gambling.) But I have come to realize that gambling is no worse an "industry", economically speaking, than any other of our leisure or entertainment industries.
My economic objection amounted to this: gambling is an industry that produces *nothing*. It is just a way to transfer money from some people to others, mostly to the owners and employees of the casinos, but also to a few other gamblers, and to various taxing authorities. It doesn't serve any purpose. All that money being spent, and all those people employed by the casinos, could be better used doing something more productive, like building houses or sweeping the streets, or buying health care for the poor.
But if you stand back from any industry, most economic activity is also, from a purely financial perspective, just a way to transfer money from some people to others. The difference is that, for example, the construction industry leaves in its wake improved houses, roads, buildings, etc. It is productive. Gambling leaves nothing in its wake.
The problem with that objection is that it is true of anything people do for leisure or entertainment. Watching TV is not productive. Going to a concert is not productive. In fact, aside from industries that provide the necessities of life (whatever you want to consider those to be), everything is non-productive.
So I don't object to gambling for an economic reason any more, at least not compared to other forms of entertainment.
But I *may* have a mild objection to all forms of entertainment. Don't get me wrong, far be it from me to get all puritanical and suggest we do away with entertainment; in many ways, the meaning of life is to first satisfy the necessities of life, and then figure out how to have as much fun on top of that. But compared to the cost of providing programs to combat poverty, hunger, homelessness, health care reform, or whatever, how much do we spend on our leisure activities?
My initial poking around on the web suggests it may not be as bad as I thought it was, but I haven't found a good source for data yet. I found that movies/music, gambling, watching sports, and interactive entertainment (e.g. video games) are each about a $50 billion/year industry (gross approximation). That's $200 bn right there. Our GDP is $14 trillion. So those three industries alone account for about 1.4% of our overall economic activity. Not a trivial amount, and it would certainly be larger when you account for other leisure activities (tobacco, alcohol, the arts, vacation travel, etc.).
One estimate of the cost of health care reform is that it would cost about $250 billion *over 10 years*, or somewhere around 10% of what we spend on just those 4 categories of entertainment.
I'm not arguing that that alone makes the cost palatable or an easy decision, but it does put it in perspective.
My economic objection amounted to this: gambling is an industry that produces *nothing*. It is just a way to transfer money from some people to others, mostly to the owners and employees of the casinos, but also to a few other gamblers, and to various taxing authorities. It doesn't serve any purpose. All that money being spent, and all those people employed by the casinos, could be better used doing something more productive, like building houses or sweeping the streets, or buying health care for the poor.
But if you stand back from any industry, most economic activity is also, from a purely financial perspective, just a way to transfer money from some people to others. The difference is that, for example, the construction industry leaves in its wake improved houses, roads, buildings, etc. It is productive. Gambling leaves nothing in its wake.
The problem with that objection is that it is true of anything people do for leisure or entertainment. Watching TV is not productive. Going to a concert is not productive. In fact, aside from industries that provide the necessities of life (whatever you want to consider those to be), everything is non-productive.
So I don't object to gambling for an economic reason any more, at least not compared to other forms of entertainment.
But I *may* have a mild objection to all forms of entertainment. Don't get me wrong, far be it from me to get all puritanical and suggest we do away with entertainment; in many ways, the meaning of life is to first satisfy the necessities of life, and then figure out how to have as much fun on top of that. But compared to the cost of providing programs to combat poverty, hunger, homelessness, health care reform, or whatever, how much do we spend on our leisure activities?
My initial poking around on the web suggests it may not be as bad as I thought it was, but I haven't found a good source for data yet. I found that movies/music, gambling, watching sports, and interactive entertainment (e.g. video games) are each about a $50 billion/year industry (gross approximation). That's $200 bn right there. Our GDP is $14 trillion. So those three industries alone account for about 1.4% of our overall economic activity. Not a trivial amount, and it would certainly be larger when you account for other leisure activities (tobacco, alcohol, the arts, vacation travel, etc.).
One estimate of the cost of health care reform is that it would cost about $250 billion *over 10 years*, or somewhere around 10% of what we spend on just those 4 categories of entertainment.
I'm not arguing that that alone makes the cost palatable or an easy decision, but it does put it in perspective.
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