Internet Gambling

07 February 2001 A Bet against Internet Gambling I love gambling. Who doesn't? The minute you walk into a casino you are overwhelmed by exciting noises, flashing lights and people having a good time. There is so much excitement it isn't hard to become addicted, especially after your first big win. The rush you get from winning is something that is hard to parallel. Trust me I know. I almost became addicted. I realized the trouble I was heading for before it was too late. I was a lucky one. Many people aren't as lucky. It is especially easy for people who live very close to a casino to get addicted because it is so easily accessible. Now imagine if everyone who had a computer had 600+ casino's right in their own living room. It is like everyone having access to crack cocaine all the time. Not quite as addictive, but you get the idea. That is why I am for Internet gambling prohibition. Some people might say that prohibition isn't fair, that there are people who can handle the responsibility. Why should everyone suffer because some people can't handle it? I would tell them that in making a decision like whether or not Internet gambling prohibition should be enforced the benefits should outweigh the risks. In this case they definitely do. Internet gambling is easy to get hooked on. There are advertisements for casinos at almost all of the major search engines and home pages (ex: yahoo, metacrawler, excite etc.). Many of these advertisements claim that they have free gambling or give away free money. For example one casino will give you $125.00 for a $50.00 deposit. Do you think they would really give you that money if they weren't confident that you would get hooked and spend it all there or if they thought that they wouldn't get it all back? Once they have lured you to their websites it is easy for them to get your money. It seems a lot easier to spend virtual casino tokens purchased with a credit card than it is to spend your actual hard earned cash at a real casino. Another obvious problem with having online casinos is that children have easy access to them. There is no way to check ID. Anyone with a credit card number can play. Parents of children who gamble online are legally responsible for the debt that their children accumulate. It is especially easy if the parents have already been to that particular casino and set up an account. All the child would need is a password and many computer operating systems have the option of saving passwords and filling them in for the user. Young people are especially vulnerable to Internet gambling. "In virtually all studies of the rates of gambling problems at various ages, high school and college-aged individuals show the highest problem rates," said an advisory on Internet gambling and addiction issued by the American Psychiatric Association (Gugliotta 1). Some people believe that online casinos are good for the local economy because they provide jobs and tax revenue for a community. This may be true but the community isn't local. Most online casinos are located overseas to avoid taxes and US regulations. Another reason for prohibition is that there is no way to regulate online overseas casinos. Real casinos in the