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Index |
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Study Guide
Morality of Online Gambling
- Negative Social Impact:
- (NEW!)Online Gambling is more accessable to minors with more anonymity and less identity verification.
- (NEW!)Compulsive Gamblers theoretically damage the economy by not contributing in other areas.
- (NEW!)Internet anonymity brings potential for defrauding gamblers and laundering dirty money.
- (NEW!)Advertizing for internet gambling appears on sites accessible to youngsters.
- (NEW!)"With online gambling people can do it in their bathroom"
-Representative Frank Wolf (R) Virginia, addressing the House regarding online gaming
- Gambling has been linked to higher suicide rates, domestic violence,
organized crime, white collar crime, etc.
- Online gambling makes it significantly easier to gamble, and could promote
addiction.
- Positive Social Impact:
- (NEW!)Online gambling is a thriving economical presence, with estimates of $12 billion each year in revenue.
- Online gambling could be taxed, and revenue could support various government
programs/charities.
- (NEW!)Legalized online gambling could result in successful regulation, rather than simply forcing the companies and providers overseas where organized crime and corruption are more likely.
- (NEW!)Online gambling allows for both privacy and the free right of choice for the individual, rather than letting the government stipulate which personal decisions a person should be allowed to make.
- (NEW!)Online poker and other multiplayer cardgames have much better odds than the legal vices of lottery or horseracing, resulting in notably less potential lives laid waste as a result of gambling addiciton.
Legality of
Online Gambling
- Many of the laws, especially the Wire Act regarding phone records, are vague, or were written before the emergence of the internet.
- (NEW!)The US Court of Appeals decided that online gambling involving "games of chance" are not expressly illegal.
- (NEW!)The WTO declared that the US was not allowed to obstuct online gambling out of the country as it stands in the way of free trade, and gambling is a major business in several WTO countries outside the US.
- (NEW!)In spite of WTO ruling, the House recently passed a bill restricting online gambling in the US, and began an national crackdown, arresting an international gambling site president.
Problems with Prohibition
- (NEW!) Prohibition is a wonderous and time tested solution. Just look how well it improved the situation with alcoholism from 1911-1914 and from 1927-1930.
- (corrected)The U.S. government cannot shut down international sites, nor can they monitor
every site on the internet. Also, they have no authority to regulate trade outside the country.
- Extradition is not possible, and prosecuting individual betters would
be difficult.
- Negative side-effects of prohibition
- It would force people to become criminals, and resort to unorthodox
methods to resolve business problems.
- Depending on how it's enforced, placing the burden on ISPs could damage
the internet as well as property rights
Opposition to Online Gambling
- Various religious, political, and consumer advocate groups oppose gambling for many of the reasons
discussed above. But there is also the classic "baptist and bootlegger"
problem: those most opposed to gambling would be religious groups and groups
that have a strong desire to protect their offline gambling business.
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