The gambling games are those games whose outcome is determined by chance. The word “gambling” comes from “zarah”, meaning “dice”. Date precisely the discovery of gambling is an almost impossible: they have for centuries part of the culture of every people. We find reports on games of chance as early as 4,000 BC in ancient Egypt, but also in India, China and Japan, the most ancient manuscripts bear testimony about the high stakes game of dice and racing with carts: is it think that games of chance are born almost simultaneously to humanity itself.
With the progress of human history, including gambling and their penetration into the socio-economic evolved. Around the twelfth and thirteenth century, born with horse racing bets on it, while in the sixteenth century in Italy and England, created the first lottery. Meanwhile, the attitudes of civil and religious authorities towards gambling were subject to various changes, alternating phases of permissiveness with phases of total prohibition.
The invention of roulette is the work of the philosopher Blaise Pascal, although already in the Middle Ages there were games that were based on the speed of a wheel, which eventually identified a number. In 1895, however, the American Charles Fay developed the first slot-machines.
Aware of the enormous economic power represented by the industry of gambling, governments were quick to exploit this financial resource: these policies, on one hand sought (and still seek) to limit private initiative in the field of games of gambling, on the other hand, promoted the role of a gambler was, through the development of state lotteries, state control over gambling, etc..
At the same time, however, access to casino has been limited by regulations, and to protect certain categories of potential users who might otherwise be economic ruin, both for religious reasons. Simultaneously with the State control on gambling, has developed a network illegally connected to it, that in Italy reached a turnover of one third of that obtained from gambling.
And it’s possible to divide the games of chance in two categories:
a) Inside the casino
b) Out Casinos
The first category includes games such as roulette, baccarat, chemin de fer, Black-Jack. To the second belong instead lotteries, lotto, superenalotto, football pools, Totogol, Totip, and all sports betting, all games of cards and dice, bingo, etc… A special place is reserved for video poker and slot machines.
You have to remember that 3% of the adult population to be pathological gambler (DSM IV Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1994), for the remaining 97% of gambling represents a pleasant diversion, a way to socialize, it may also prove useful: it is inconceivable to expect to keep gambling out of any form of control, but you need to create a true culture of gambling, which must be seen as a means of enrichment and not as an alternative means to employment.
