Newsweek article on Online Gambling
This is an oldie but goodie, check out some of the anti-gambling comments posted this week.
Posted By: truth-101 @ 03/05/2009 2:04:02 AM
the main issue is not online gambling, you're a fool. the main problem is there is no way to regulate these things clearly, and there is always a chance the player can be swindled out of millions by either fake player programs setup by the company to simulate real players and win instead. this is to protect the american people from fraud, something that is happening quite a lot. there is simply no way to fairly tell if the system is stacked against the player, especially when many online gambling companies are overseas and untouchable by our courts. for all you know, the whole table of poker you're sitting at online is filled with company employee's or programs to simulate players. this is not nonsensical like other prohibitions. the only people I can see fighting for online gambling are the addicted gamblers, and the company's that want to cheat those gamblers.
Prohibition II: Good Grief
When Government Restricts Americans' Choices, Ostensibly For Their Own Good, Someone Is Going To Profit From The Paternalism.
Perhaps Prohibition II is being launched because Prohibition I worked so well at getting rid of gin. Or maybe the point is to reassure social conservatives that Republicans remain resolved to purify Americans' behavior. Incorrigible cynics will say Prohibition II is being undertaken because someone stands to make money from interfering with other people making money.
For whatever reason, last Friday the president signed into law Prohibition II. You almost have to admire the government's plucky refusal to heed history's warnings about the probable futility of this adventure. This time the government is prohibiting Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations on a list the government will prepare.
Last year about 12 million Americans wagered $6 billion online. But after Congress, 32 minutes before adjourning, passed its ban, the stock of the largest online-gambling business, Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, which gets 85 percent of its $1 billion annual revenue from Americans, declined 58 percent in one day, wiping out about $5 billion in market value. The stock of a British company, World Gaming PLC, which gets about 95 percent of its revenue from Americans, plunged 88 percent. The industry, which has some 2,300 Web sites and did half of its business last year with Americans, has lost $8 billion in market value because of the new law. And you thought the 109th Congress did not accomplish anything.
The number of online American gamblers, although just one sixth the number of Americans who visit real casinos annually, doubled in the last year. This competition alarms the nation's biggest gambling interests--state governments.
Read more here...
When Government Restricts Americans' Choices, Ostensibly For Their Own Good, Someone Is Going To Profit From The Paternalism.
Perhaps Prohibition II is being launched because Prohibition I worked so well at getting rid of gin. Or maybe the point is to reassure social conservatives that Republicans remain resolved to purify Americans' behavior. Incorrigible cynics will say Prohibition II is being undertaken because someone stands to make money from interfering with other people making money.
For whatever reason, last Friday the president signed into law Prohibition II. You almost have to admire the government's plucky refusal to heed history's warnings about the probable futility of this adventure. This time the government is prohibiting Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations on a list the government will prepare.
Last year about 12 million Americans wagered $6 billion online. But after Congress, 32 minutes before adjourning, passed its ban, the stock of the largest online-gambling business, Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, which gets 85 percent of its $1 billion annual revenue from Americans, declined 58 percent in one day, wiping out about $5 billion in market value. The stock of a British company, World Gaming PLC, which gets about 95 percent of its revenue from Americans, plunged 88 percent. The industry, which has some 2,300 Web sites and did half of its business last year with Americans, has lost $8 billion in market value because of the new law. And you thought the 109th Congress did not accomplish anything.
The number of online American gamblers, although just one sixth the number of Americans who visit real casinos annually, doubled in the last year. This competition alarms the nation's biggest gambling interests--state governments.
Read more here...
the main issue is not online gambling, you're a fool. the main problem is there is no way to regulate these things clearly, and there is always a chance the player can be swindled out of millions by either fake player programs setup by the company to simulate real players and win instead. this is to protect the american people from fraud, something that is happening quite a lot. there is simply no way to fairly tell if the system is stacked against the player, especially when many online gambling companies are overseas and untouchable by our courts. for all you know, the whole table of poker you're sitting at online is filled with company employee's or programs to simulate players. this is not nonsensical like other prohibitions. the only people I can see fighting for online gambling are the addicted gamblers, and the company's that want to cheat those gamblers.