How the government really works

Don Boudreaux explains the real politics of prohibition in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The most important thing to know:

So, if the history of alcohol prohibition is a guide, drug prohibition will not end merely because there are many sound, sensible and humane reasons to end it. Instead, it will end only if and when Congress gets desperate for another revenue source.

It's sad, but what the government decides you can and can not do has little to do with anything other than revenue. Gambling is exactly the same.