Poker and all other forms of gambling should be banned

Banning gambling? Its such a human thing though, at least here in the capitalist west... People bet and gamble for different reasons, I for one play poker with friends, we have a twelve or 16 man multi table tournament and its fun. It's a good night and probably spend the same or less than going clubbing, we do like £10 buy in and allow rebuy's till a certain hour etc. That is not a dangerous addiction although I admit for some it could lead to one. I on the other hand don't want to have my freedoms impeded because some don't know when is enough or because they don't know how to respect their community! I feel that many of those that go down a spiral losing their lives through gambling would probably lose it if introduced to many other things like hard core drugs. Let's be honest being introduced to class A drugs is very very easy even though they are illegal, so gambling will never leave us either. The structure of society in England will not allow for these activities to be removed so why dream about it... I enjoy the choices I have and just to say one thing further, if I wanted to be gay here I could but in America certain groups want it 'banned' (criminalised come on!), my question to you is, is this ok? They believe being gay leads you down a spiral to eternal damnation which has at least a parallel as an argument to yours. Let's just clean up the industry and help those who need it, for the foreseeable future no matter how people will find a way to gamble.

Sorry for the rant

So gambling addicts who bet away their salaries whilst their spouse and children live a sub standard life don't harm anoyone?

Why does everybody seem to hate freedom today? Ban this, ban that, blah blah.

If people want to gamble, thats their own choice, no one is forcing them to do it. if they suck at it and lose lots of money, thats their own fault. All the state should do is make sure the gambling companies aren't tricking or deceiving their customers.

^^ This! Have some rep.

I love poker, and it would be a breach of my freedoms to stop me playing it. What's the worst that could happen? I could lose some of my own personal money, I don't see why that affects you so strongly.

^^ This! Have some rep.

I love poker, and it would be a breach of my freedoms to stop me playing it. What's the worst that could happen? I could lose some of my own personal money, I don't see why that affects you so strongly.

Hundreds and thousandsd of lives are destroyed by the gambling industry and I belive that such a base and immoral industry should be banned.

Hundreds and thousandsd of lives are destroyed by the gambling industry and I belive that such a base and immoral industry should be banned.

What about when a persons free choice impede on the lifes of others? your not allowed to smoke in public places, why should others get lung cancer for your choices? Ban gambling not because it harms you but becasue it harms those around you.

They need to be more responsible, not banned. I signed up to a roulette site and they kept ringing me asking me to gamble, offering me free money, and generally hassling me. I dread to think what would happen if I was addicted.

Instead of banning it, we should tax these sorts of industries heavily so that the money can be invested in treatment programmes and also for educating people about the effects and problems that can occur in gambling.

Also, the heavy taxation will discourage the industries.