[awesome_dude]

True - legalisation increased total gambling.

But your original claim was 'very few gambled illegally' which the historical record contradicts.

The Costigan and Fitzgerald inquiries showed illegal gambling wasn't just widespread - the profits funded other organised crime including the heroin trade.

We can debate whether legalisation was net positive without rewriting that history.

[Teever]

So how wide spread was it?

Like is there a graph of illegal gambling participation by pop over time?

I've run in many different circles in my life and I've never really come across any sort of illegal gambling.

I know it exists[0], it just honestly doesn't seem very common.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JkkMBpQtU

[awesome_dude]

> Illegal bookmaking (SP)/Race fixing

> The race track, it appears, is a great meeting place for criminals. The Costigan Royal Commission (Australia 1984), the Connor Inquiry (Victoria 1983), the Moffit Royal Commission (New South Wales 1974) and the Fitzgerald Inquiry (Queensland 1989) revealed that a vast network of SP bookmakers exists throughout Australia. They found the monetary flow in the industry huge, and as such has the potential to finance many other illegal activities.

> Mr Justice Moffit warned that there was evidence to indicate that SP syndicates were in contact with major heroin smugglers and domestic drug distributors (New South Wales 1974).

> Connor estimated that the annual turnover for SP bookmaking was $1800 million in New South Wales and $1000 million in Victoria. Connor has said of illegal bookmaking: >> Illegal bookmaking is a multimillion dollar industry run by people who can get up to forty or fifty telephones and who, if their telephones are closed down, can get them in new premises a week later. Illegal bookmakers prosper, making millions of illegal dollars, simply because they do not pay income tax or betting taxes (Victoria 1983a, vol. 2, ch. 14).[0]

McMillen, J. (1996). "Gambling Cultures: Studies in History and Interpretation."

This academic study explains that SP bookmaking was a "submerged" culture. It operated through "runners" in pubs and massive illegal telephone exchanges. If you weren't a "punter" or part of that specific working-class pub culture, the infrastructure was invisible by design to avoid police detection. (unfortunately I cannot link you to a direct copy - but https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/97802039935... )

[0]https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/tandi024....

https://henley.austlii.edu.au/au/other/cth/AURoyalC/1984/2.p... (It's a prick of a thing to search, but the phrase "River of gold" was used to describe the profits the union was taking from illegal gambling)

[hellojimbo]

Dont be dense, we are talking about "very few" in the context of draft kings which prints more money in 1 week than black market gambling has in years. The turnover in legal sports gambling in america is over 100b a year, this is larger than the gdp of most countries.