[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.