The Effects of the Banning Online Gambling

Everyone talks about the negative impact of online gambling, but they are not talking about the negative impact of banning online gambling. A reason for banning online casinos was to make sure that underage children were not using thee parents credit cards to gamble online, but besides the fact that most online casinos did everything possible to ensure to verify the age of the account holder before allowing any gambling to occur, but by banning it you are only stopping the law abiding casinos from taking bets and not the less reputable online casinos. They will use third party account like PayPal ore Click2pay which provide a loophole in the new law. By banning an activity especially such a popular activity as online gambling all that can be expected to happen is for people to find ways around the law, such as the Speakeasies of the 1920’s. A Speakeasy was a nightclub that served Alcohol during prohibition and was usually hidden in the back rooms of pet stores and innocent looking book stores. Every time a speakeasy was raided the next night another one was opened, and this is what will happen with these online casinos. If the government finds one operating in the USA and gets it shut down or manages to stop the money flowing to it then another will open. By regulating online gambling the government would know exactly who was running the casino to make sure they were running it honestly and within all the laws, and it would help make sure that the criminal element did not get rich and gain power a second time in the history of the USA because of a bad lawmaking decision. Another reason given for the ban of online gambling was to help protect against a rise in problem gamblers from have casino gamming in your home 24 hrs a day, but no proof has ever been found that shows that people who would normally not be inclined to go to a casino and gamble would decide to do it just because it was now in their homes. The facts actually show a steady rate of people with gambling problems and growing at the same rate it has been growing for over 25 years. Many experts are now saying that there are some positives to the online gambling ban, but those positives would be even better if the industry was properly legalized and not, just by putting a mostly unenforceable law in place. But this to be a pattern the government seems to always make, it is much like the war on drugs. Last time I checked thee was still a drug problem in this country even though drugs are illegal, yet in countries like Holland where the use of soft drugs like hash and grass are legal the number people with drug problems is much lower per capita then in the USA. This is because the money that is brought in the form of taxes from these sales goes to fund the public schools where they properly educate kids on the negative effects of these drugs, so most of the people who smoke are tourists and not the locals. Maybe one day the government will learn from its past mistakes and make things right.

Does the American government see its citizens as its children?

In Americas 230 year history the government seems to have forgotten that there job is to run the government as the people see as best and not the government telling the people what is best for them. The most recent example is the Internet gambling Ban signed into law last week by President Bush. The bill makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to transfer money to casinos for the purpose of wagering on sports or games of chance, like roulette, blackjack and poker. These games are harmlessly enjoyed regularly by millions of Americans everyday, but some people become addicted to these games so the government is telling all of its citizens that no one is allowed to play these games in an online casino. This is not the first case of the government going against the wishes of the people, in the early 1900’s the government decided that the consumption of Alcohol should be banned, because some people were developing health and mental problems related to drinking too much. So rather then educating the people on the ill effects of prolonged Alcohol abuse the American government banned Alcohol. But instead of reducing the consumption of Alcoholic beverages it increased, and because the government was not allowing the production or importing of Alcohol, organized grime got into the moonshine business, and eventually the Government saw the error of their decision and repealed the law. Another great example of a failed policy to protect the people is the war on drugs that the government has been aging since the early 1980’s Billions of tax dollars a year goes into the war on drugs, but what are the results? The price of drugs has risen, and to support their habits many drug addicts have had to commit acts of robbery and murder to get their drugs. The American prisons are packed full of people whose only crime was possession of these illegal drugs. Instead of being an industry that is regulated and controlled you have people selling these drugs to kids in school playgrounds, and shooting each other to protect their territory. Had the government decided not to criminalize drugs but make it a heavily controlled industry, they could use the tax money for social programs like schools ad to give Americans universal health care. Please do not misunderstand me I am not in favor for legalizing hard drugs, but the current system is not working at all, but I am all in favor for legalizing online casino gambling. If I choose to play some hands of blackjack or poker from the comfort of my home what rights does the government have to tell me not to, and what sense does it make that I can not play in a casino over the internet, but I can drive down the street to the local casino and play there. To enforce this ban millions if not billions of dollars of software and computer hardware will be needed to monitor all of the banks transactions and that money will come from taxes instead of the government taxing online casinos or even having all the online casinos government controlled then they get all the profits to be used to improve the lives of the American citizens, millions of which are bellow the poverty line if not homeless. The American government needs to start re-thinking its policy of treating its citizens like small children, or the American people need to demand a new government.