[bluedevil2k]

It's a religion thing here in the US. Large Christian churches (Methodist for example) are against gambling on moral grounds, fight addictions, personal weakness, avarice, etc. Since money and an ability to get members to turn out to vote run everything in American politics, you end up with many states banning gambling on "moral grounds".

About 8 years ago where I live they wanted to built a horse racing track and we regularly got flyers from the anti-horse-racing group(local giant church) that claimed gambling brings crime, alcoholism, and prostitution to any community that allows it.

http://www.gambleonline.co/religious-views-of-gambling/

http://www.gotquestions.org/gambling-sin.html

[jerf]

Gambling is also strictly regulated in China, Japan, Muslim countries, Russia, and good chunks of Europe, and that's just the countries/regions I checked, I'm sure there are others. A local religion-based explanation is at best an incomplete picture of why people object to gambling. Like many aspects of civilization where the code happens to live in religion, it probably is corrosive to civilized behavior, because it seems like all successful civilizations put substantial regulations on it. (As cause and effect is hard to tease apart that's about all I can establish in an HN post.) Given the high frequency with which gambling is deregulated and then often very quickly reregulated (by the standards of government regulation motion, anyhow), it is hard to believe all of those cultures are reacting to irrational, unrealistic concerns.

[douche]

It's something of a relic of the resurgence of Puritan-esque positions from the 2nd Great Awakening. You get the abolitionism and the women's rights, but you have to take the prohibition and the frowning and finger-shaking at anybody that's trying to enjoy themselves along with it.