翾昱斋——端木佩仪的小屋

The term “gaming” is preferred rather than “gambling”.
Different states have different rules. Washington State has card rooms and Indian casinos, which both have card games, whereas Idaho State only allows slots machines with certain numbers and there is no table game at all in Idaho.  
The voice, which blames gambling as a decline in the American work ethic and a lapse in moral value, is getting weaker and weaker. Gambling becomes a form of recreation and an integral part of the popular culture. People accept gambling in varying degrees.

Some information I got when I did research for my papers. Just for fun.
According to a report on USA Today, all but three states — Tennessee, Hawaii and Utah — have some forms of legal gambling. Charitable gambling is allowed in forty-six states, while racetrack betting is allowed in forty-one states. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia operate lotteries. Native American casinos are permitted in twenty-three states, whereas non-Indian commercial casinos are allowed in eleven states (McMahon).
Source: McMahon, Patrick. “Gambling Bug Bites Needy States”. USA Today on the Web 28 Aug. 2002. 27 Nov. 2007. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-28-gambling_x.htm>.

Gambling, the betting or staking of something of value, is as old as humankind itself. Betting on horses began as soon as the animals were domesticated, and gambling’s ties to sports date back as far as 1450 B.C.E., when Egyptians competed against each other in jumping, wrestling, and ball game competitions, centuries before the first Greek Olympics. As many as 250,000 spectators watched, and gambled on, chariot races in Rome’s Circus Maximus. Gospel writers Matthew and Mark report that Roman guards gambled for Jesus’ garments following his crucifixion, “casting lots upon them, what every man should take.” Towns challenged towns in medieval archery matches, and gambling was an ever present accompaniment as sports competitions became organized in Europe during the Renaissance and early Modern periods. (188)
The first American gambling casino was opened in New Orleans around 1822. Owner John Davis provided gourmet food, liquor, roulette wheels, faro tables, poker, and other games, made certain that prostitutes were never far away. (189)
The first legal casino in the United States outside of Las Vegas opened on Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Broadwalk in 1978, providing an influx of jobs and money even as the outer city remained impoverished. Gaming on Indian Reservations, the so-called “return of the buffalo”, was re-legalized by Congress in 1988. (191)
Source: “Gambling”. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Eds. Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast. Vol. 2. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press, 2000. 5 vols. 188-191.
This encyclopedia includes over 2,700 essays on all elements of popular culture in the United States in the twentieth century. Each entry describes the topic and analyzes its significance in and relevance to American popular culture. It’s an elaborate resource of popular culture.