If you can buy cigarettes and kill yourself slowly at eighteen why can’t you walk into a casino and gamble? This is just one example on why I think the age of gambling should be lowered to eighteen. To me this is one of the worst laws in this country. I understand why the drinking age is twenty one, but why gambling? There are so many arguments on why the gambling age is twenty-one and in this essay I will explain on why I think it should be changed to eighteen.
Why do we find it necessary to prosecute minors for committing a crime that was legal only a few short years ago. Congress did not see the need for the law then, and I certainly do not see the need for it now. When the state began permitting organized gaming, few saw a problem with underage gambling. Why now do we feel a need to prosecute minors who gamble? There is not one story of a kid of eighteen (when it was legal) that went out and lost all his money and was miserable the rest of his/her life.
I understand why the drinking age is twenty one, but I don’t get why gambling age is eighteen. You can’t hurt yourself by gambling. The only reason why I think they wouldn’t want to lower the gambling age is because they are afraid that teenagers will lose hundreds of dollars. When you think about it, this really isn't a sensible reason, since most people eighteen to twenty-one do not even have two hundred dollars to gamble away. When you recognize all the other rights to which those eighteen and up are entitled, laws like this are an outrage! At the age of eighteen you can: be arrested, sent to prison, pay taxes, own a car, rent property, own a house, be
sued, get married, be drafted, own a gun, serve on a jury, and most importantly: vote! If we can allow and eighteen year old to walk around with a gun in his hand with the ability to blow his or even someone else’s head off, why can’t they go into a casino and blow fifty bucks. It just doesn’t make any sense, they should have an amazing argument...