Gambling is now globalizes business. Many countries have launched into the casino business in recent years because it looked like easy money. And most now are not doing well because the world-wide supply of casinos exceeds demand.
Legalizing casinos increases the amount people spend on gambling, and reduces the amount they save. if open legal casinos attract people who have never gambled before, increase the amount of compulsive gambling, and raise total spending on gambling, among lower-income groups.
Promoting gambling can mean promoting crime. Because of the global over-supply in the casino business are paid to fly in tour groups of high-rollers. Many these high-rollers are drug-dealers and the like. A police consultant in Sydney described to us how he had identified major drug-dealers from Thailand
Financial control is far from easy. The casino industry is all about money, and government has to be very careful if it wants to get its allotted share. All governments which allow legal casinos have large official monitoring bodies.