Gambling is one of the world’s oldest forms of entertainment and one of America’s highest grossing industries. Everyone gambles weather they see it or not or do it for money or not. You can say I am taking a gamble in writing this paper, I want you to learn something but most of all I want you to understand the point I am trying to make and side with them. Gambling has seen a lot of additions and improvements over the decades from theme and branded slot machines to reward cards that allow you to receive gifts if you spend a certain amount. One of the most innovative ideas to come from the industry is the ability to gamble online. Online gambling allows users to log onto a website and gamble from home, their smartphones and (gasp) even work. In today’s times with everything ending up online it was only a matter of time before online gambling showed up to the party. With any new additions to the masses, there is always people who are for it and people who are against it. As someone who gamble’s responsibly and does it for entertainment and the challenge, I have proposed this innovation as a good thing and I will explain as to why this is. Online gambling is very beneficial in a variety of ways such as increased state revenue, job creation and entertainment value, even if there is some opposition I believe online gambling is here to stay.
Online gambling is still in its relative infancy as it’s really just started getting popular roughly 4 to 5 years ago, but it’s starting to gain a lot of traction. It is also starting to become legal in a growing number of states as they are starting to see the benefits of it. According to Stuyvie Pyne (2013), author of “Online Gambling in America”, there were over 250 websites that accepted bets online in 1999. These sites allowed bets to be placed on sporting events and handled lottery bets as well as simple card games. Back then the internet was still new to people so there was nothing extravagant, all they needed to do was provide the service and collect money. The only caveat was that players had to check local laws themselves before doing any type of gambling to avoid any legal action. There were some sites that operated without rules and did not care who was gambling or cared to inform the gambler of anything. According to James Oliver (2001), author of “Internet Gambling; Will History Repeat Itself”, to avoid laws and prosecution, a lot of sites were offshore in legal foreign jurisdiction. When it first started gambling was legal in one state but still had many restrictions. This is why a lot of websites moved overseas where they cannot be regulated or touched if anything goes wrong.
Online gambling in its most basic form is simple entertainment. It provides a way for some users to relax and de-stress in a way. Those that gamble responsibly can receive a lot of entertainment value for the time and money that they put out. The majority of users that will gamble online want the challenge and excitement. Just playing poker after a long day at work can add great entertainment is well worth the time and potential money gain or loss. I enjoy playing poker for the thrill of the challenge. When I play online it’s to beat the house but I don’t break my bank roll and bet more than planned. Playing slots whether it’s online or at a brick casino can go a long way in helping people relieve stress from their work or stress from their family life.
With the exploration in to online gambling, the casinos will have to buy equipment to handle the load and keep the integrity of the games. The casinos will have to hire skilled workers to set these systems up and keep these systems running. The systems would have to have an uptime of 100 percent as it any component fails then players can lose money or new players will not be able to sign up. According to Jennifer Bogdan (2014), author of “Jobs created by online gambling to move in-state by May 1”, one of the stipulations is that internet gambling has to have created jobs by May 1st 2014 in the state of New Jersey. According to Bogdan, “Industry advocates champion the future of the industry, one they say could position New Jersey as a central hub of the market and bear more than 20,000 jobs”. People will benefit from the extra jobs and maybe bring the unemployment numbers down a bit.
With the benefits of more jobs, there will be a greater workforce to pay state and local taxes. With increased revenue to the casinos, more state revenue in taxes will be received. With these extra income sources, state and local projects can get additional funding or new projects can be created all together. According to Jennifer Booton (2012), author of “Online Gambling won’t solve State debt woes but it could help”, online gambling can add an additional source of revenue to pay down debt and fund new projects. The extra revenue gained from online gambling could allow the state to help maintain roads and build new parks. The extra revenue could help provide cleanup efforts for city’s or abandoned buildings. The revenue could fund new police and emergency personnel for when it’s needed.
With the explained benefits of online gambling, people still oppose it for many reasons such as it makes it easier for gambling addicts to relapse and easier for minors to log in and start gambling using false names and ages. It only takes a few clicks and less than a minute for someone to browse to the casinos website, log in and start to gamble. According to Phill Dunn (2014), author of “Online Gambling spurs Addiction Fears”, the gambling addiction numbers will double as a result of online gambling. With online gambling so easy to access and not too many safeguards, then it is not surprising that this could possibly happen. Another issue is that it makes it easy for minors to log in and start to gamble. According to the Christian Science Monitor (2013), “A Dubious Drive to Legalize Online Gambling”, there is a draconian system in place to check the ages of online gamblers. With this antiquated system, no wonder there is a fear that minors can abuse it.
The stated problems of ease of addiction and minors gambling are major issues, but that does not mean they cannot be fixed or given some help. The addition of online gambling can cause those who were once addicted to gambling another chance to relapse or it can cause a who new set of people to get addicted to gambling. According to Phill Dunn (2014), there are systems in place at some online sites that allow only pre-determined conditions. Some sites set limits on the amount of money that can be added to an account based on the total amount of it could be a per week or month basis. There are sites that allow the user or a custodian to limit the amount of time they can spend gambling per day, week or month. A great step forward is that most sites allow a user to sign themselves up for a lifetime ban so they cannot log in or even create an account so that they do not relapse. Minors having access to gamble online is a very bad idea and can turn south very quickly. As of now there are no major thwarting systems in place to help stop or deter this. With the right team or startup one could be created that does what it’s supposed to do, keep minors out of the system. The program can make users submit certain information that only the user would know so that the verification is close to 100 percent accurate.
With the addition of online gambling to the world, a lot of people have found something to like about it. Online gambling brings a lot of benefits to the table from extra entertainment values, added jobs and the creation of extra revenue. People love to be entertained, online gambling fills this niche by giving the users fun interactive ways to gamble. There is always a need for job creation and online gambling fills that by creating skilled technical jobs that pay decent and have great benefits. A big source of state revenue can be added by online gambling when it’s fully up and running. With all of the added benefits it would be a no brainer to allow online gambling to stay but there are a few kinks that need to be ironed out. The ability to limit user’s time and monetary investment is a system that is in place now but it could be more refined and easier to navigate. Major overhaul is also need to help prevent minors from logging in to the system to gamble but this can be developed and can become effective. Even with these two drawbacks, online gambling far outweighs them and brings real benefits that we can use now and well in to the future.
A Dubious Drive to Legalize Online Gambling. (2013, July 18). Retrieved from SIRS: http://sks.sirs.com.libproxy.dtcc.edu/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SDE19901-0-8918&artno=0000355081&type=ART
Bogdan, J. (2014, March 30). Jobs created by online gambling to move in-state by May 1. Retrieved from Press of Atlantic City : http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/communities/atlantic-city_pleasantville_brigantine/jobs-created-by-online-gambling-to-move-in-state-by/article_5432480a-b87a-11e3-aaac-0019bb2963f4.html
Booton, J. (2012, June 25). Online Gambling Won't Solve State Debt Woes, But it Could Help. Retrieved from Fox Business: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2012/06/22/online-gambling-might-not-solve-state-debt-but-it-could-help/
Dunn, P. (2014, March 16). Online Gambling Spurs Addiction Fears . Retrieved from USA Today : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/16/online-gambling-addiction/6476761/
Oliver, J. (2001, March 29). Internet Gambling; Will History Repeat Itself . Retrieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/cls01/oliver2.html
Pyne, S. (2013, April 22). Online Gambling in America. Retrieved from Berkeley Technology Law Journal : http://btlj.org/2013/04/22/online-gambling-in-america/