Faculty Scholarship Repository
A Service of the Ross-Blakley Law Library
| Article |
| Indian Casinos and the Morality of Gambling |
| Jeffrie Murphy |
| 12 Pub. Aff. Q. 119 (1998) |
| Library Access |
|
Abstract: The recent development and success of Indian casinos has generated substantial public policy debate on gambling. Those who oppose casino gambling often base their opposition on the claim that gambling is, in some often not clearly specified sense, immoral. This article makes a start toward understanding and assessing this claim. It concludes that while there may be a justifiable moral argument against state lotteries, the situation may be quite different for Indian tribes. This argument would be based upon the claims that (1) casino gambling is the only way out fo the extreme poverty in which many tribes find themselves and (2) that this poverty results from their historical exploitation at the hands of non-Indian America. These claims are empirically and historically complex, but, in any instance where they are accurate, then perhaps a case has been made for the moral legitimacy of casino gambling, because the morally relevant downsides are outweighed by the morally relevant upsides. |
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