Making Money and Gambling

In the UK and America there are a multitude of ways to gamble. Exorbitant sums of money are involved with respective governments receiving substantial income in the form of taxes. Socially, gambling has been exposed to opposition morally and singled out legally as a corrupt trait in some societies. Never the less gambling continues to rise as a major form of relaxation and as a way either, legally or illegally, of making money.As long as there have been human beings gambling, or games of chance as they are commonly known, has been in existence. It was around the mid thirteenth century that dice first came to prominence in Greece, although a similar form of entertainment was used by the Ancient Egyptians called “Knuckle bones.” Playing cards were first attributed to China in the ninth or tenth century. They were then taken up by Europeans in the fourteenth century, probably Italy, using a pack with 78 cards. It was a hundred years later before the standard pack of 52 cards became accepted as the norm. But as well as these games, betting on sports such as horse racing and dog and cock fighting enjoyed popular appeal. In all of us there is a the appeal of winning money for little or no effort but, there are still mixed feelings toward the various forms of gambling available today.Religion is prominent in many societies today. In some it is more dominant than politics and influences many of the decisions governments make. In fact many religions condemn gambling. Although Catholic countries were the first to start playing lotteries seriously. It is the fact that gambling can be attributed to greed and corruption and can be the downfall of many that fosters the beliefs of the anti-gambling faction. Gambling has also been linked to alcoholism with many games of chance taking place in public houses. The fact that drinking alcohol can also be associated with violence and lust does nothing to help the pro gambling lobby. The fact also that there are winners and losers with the winners gains offset by the loser’s losses (although the poker games I have played in this never works out!).Here in the UK things are a bit more relaxed. Have a look at these figures:8% of adults play bingo11% of adults use licensed betting shops62% of all households play the National Lottery on a Saturday33% play on a WednesdayThe above figures were taken from Social Trends 1998 so today those figures could be considerably more. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, had forthright views on gambling. He said “that a Christian should be a steward of money and not own it” and “money should not be gained through means which could harm one’s neighbour” i.e. pawnbroking or charging excessive interest on loans.Not everybody connected with religion has taken such a stance. The soon to be Anglican Bishop of Exeter, Robert Mortimer, said in 1933 that not all forms of gambling were immoral. He actually did some research into the various forms and decided that some forms of gambling were a “legitimate indulgence” which no institution had the right to ban completely.In 1948 an international congress of Anglican Bishops were concerned about the after effects of gambling on not just gamblers but their families as well. In fact, when Premium Bonds were first introduced in 1956, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, condemned them as private gain divorced from responsibility.” This was backed up by the then shadow Chancellor, Harold Wilson, as a”squalid raffle.”Many governments now take a back seat when it comes to deciding issues on gambling, realising than prohibition would condemn the problem to underground activities, therefore losing revenue.One more point in gambling’s favour. As early as 1569 it was used as a means of raising funds for public projects.So there it is, not all forms of gambling are bad.In fact some are quite therapeutic. As long as indulgences are not taken to excess there is not much harm done. It is when gambling takes over one’s life that problems arise. The motto is “know your limits and stay safe”.

Healthcare IT Companies and Healthcare Reforms

Without much ado, technology companies try to adapt to change, usually more quickly than anyone else can think. In fact, after the change is proposed or enacted as a law, the initial news are about the implementation done by some big company or firm, and how others are following the suit.Earlier this year, a very big change was proposed and enacted in the insurance industry. Healthcare reforms were implemented and brought tremendous amount of change in the healthcare sector. The main motive was to make sure that healthcare services are available to one and all within the range of affordable prices. Sure, a lot of entities had to face the brunt but the benefits of this change outweigh all the negativity that surrounds it.Healthcare providers, health insurance companies, employers who provide healthcare benefits to their employees are some of the main entities that are affected positively or negatively by these reforms. At the same time, agents, brokers and smaller units facilitating the process of health insurance are also affected.On the other hand, there are lots of opportunities and ideas that other firms can bank upon and create business. Software companies and service providing companies are vying hard to win customers-mostly on the B2B front of business.Healthcare reforms poses real challenge and a test to the healthcare IT companies as whether they can adapt to the change within the given time-period or not. The methodology could be simple:
Companies should know what type of change is required
Companies should understand the change and ways to address it
Companies should implement ways to adapt to change
Companies should make sure the compliance to change is monitored and audited
It is not easy to adapt to change quickly but survival in the market demands swift action when a change is imposed on the business. Healthcare companies have been opposing the implementation of healthcare reforms, but there are many benefits that healthcare companies can accrue from these reforms.It goes without saying that the short-term changes will have a negative impact on insurer profits. The requirements of the healthcare reforms demand that health insurance companies cannot sell policies with lifetime caps. At the same time, there will be reduction in government payments to Medicare Advantage plans.The insurance costs are the main target that the healthcare reforms are trying to bring down. It is expected that if the insurance costs could decrease, more of the 23 million people who remain uninsured will be able to afford coverage. This would mean that the people will not buy health insurance only after they get sick.The mandatory benefit package can cost more than the catastrophic plans, which will ensure that the insurance companies are not in loss. The healthcare reforms require that insurers provide a certain minimum level of benefits in the health insurance exchanges that individuals and small firms must use to buy coverage.On the downside of these healthcare reforms, it is expected that the law will reduce about $200 billion in government payments to Medicare Advantage plans. Healthcare IT companies that are heavily involved in that market will have to bear the major brunt.The challenge for healthcare IT companies is to analyze the situation and key areas where they need to change in order to make sure that their business does not suffer too much. Administrative costs need to be driven down in order to save on the profits, for, the premiums are going to slide down and reduce as the implementation goes in full-swing. With the creation of State insurance exchanges, the prices of health plans would become competitive. At the same time, technology compliance and implementation would require great amount of money to be spent.

Personal Loans are Here to Fulfill Your Personal Desires

UK finance market at present is very vast offering infinite number of loan options. Borrowers take loan for different purpose. One of the loans that will help you fulfill your personal needs is the “Personal Loan”.A Personal Loan is a loan that is lent to an individual by financial institutions such as bank, building society or other financial service provider for a specific personal reason. There are two main types of personal loan – secured loans and unsecured loans.A secured loan is any loan that requires the borrower to provide the lender with some form of security such as your property. Keep in mind that when you take a secured loan your home or the property is at risk if you fail to make payments on your mortgage or other loan secured on it.Unsecured loans are without any collateral or security and are based entirely on the character and capacity of the borrower to repayPersonal loans [http://www.easyfinance4u.com/secured_personal_loan.html] offers you to borrow an agreed sum of money for an agreed period of time. The interest rate charged on the loan can be either fixed or variable. A personal loan with a fixed rate has the fixed interest rate set throughout the life of your loan, which means you have the reassurance of knowing your monthly payments will not go up or down. A loan with a variable rate has an interest rate that fluctuates with the market change.Personal loan offers various loan options matching the expectations of different people. The key issues you should consider while choosing which Personal loan to take out are: – Borrowing limits – You can generally get a personal loan in the range of £1,000 to £75,000, it solely depends on how much do you need.
- Loan terms – The loan term may vary from 5 to 25 years depending on the type of loan taken- Providers – Banks, building societies and, increasingly, supermarket chains offer personal loans at competitive rates. Avoid loans from small firms that you have never heard of – this is a lightly regulated area and some of these loans can carry high interest rates coupled with heavy redemption penalties should you decide to move your loan to a cheaper firm.- Interest – Rate of interest depends on the duration for which the loan is taken. Generally there is, negative relationship between the rate of interest and duration for which the loan is taken.- Credit checks – Lender wants to make sure that it is not risky to give you loan and you do not have bad debts history. To do this they will check your entry on credit registers. A poor credit record won’t necessarily prevent you from getting a loan, but you will probably have to pay a higher rate of interest. You can know your credit score from the credit reporting agencies.Now you can search for lenders online by browsing through various websites and can collect quotes offered by them. You can make comparison among the various available options and can choose the one that you find appropriate.The greatest strength of personal loans is their flexibility. You can use personal loans to buy a car, for debt consolidation, finance your child’s education, renovate the house, or take a vacation. The options provided by Personal Loan are unlimited even beyond your imagination. you just need to search for the best one.