Online gambling ban saves morals, money

[KingOtter]

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Our government has fought to ban online gambling, declaring it a threat to public morals.

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Since when is the government the guardian of morality? There is nothing in the Constitution that says that this is a function of the government. Legislating morality and having the goverment enforce it is kin to enforcing a state religion, and this is clearly a function that the founders despised.

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I agree that the idea of allowing citizens to legally bet obscene amounts of money on the internet is detrimental to our country for several reasons.

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Which amount is obscene? The $2 I used to post a big blind into my poker game, or the $10 billion in revenue that the US cannot tax because they don't allow online gambling operations within their borders? The writer is coloring the piece with subjective, biased descriptions.

While $100 may be an obscene amount to 'wager' to someone making only $5,000 a year, to someone making $150,000 it may just be an entertainment expense.

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The United States has been attempting for several years now to ban online gambling. This matter isn't as trivial as it may seem on the surface. According to USA Today, experts estimate that online gambling is a $10 billion a year industry and the outcome of the case could have effects on the global industry.

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In other words... it is KILLING the politicians that they can't get any of their hands on this money.

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Our government's response has been that internet gaming allows children access to illegal gambling and therefore is different from gambling at casinos or purchasing lottery tickets.

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Is illegal gambling 'worse' then legal gambling? How are they different? If I play poker in Las Vegas, and it is legal, then why cannot I do it in my private home? And isn't it up to the parents to regulate their children's exposure? I'm much more concerned with my children's exposure to hard-core pornography on the internet then I am worried that they are going to find an online casino, download a client, deposit money and accidentally wager some money on roulette.

Online gambling is too complicated to be a legitimate, serious threat to accidental exposure by children. And in the cases where parents have already downloaded, and gamble online there obviously needs to be discussion with the children involved about what it is, that it is 'real' money, and the computer secured so they can't accidentally access it. User name and passwords are inherently parts of online gambling.

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I know students may feel as though they have the right to spend their money as they choose without government interference, but

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'but I think they shouldn't.' is how this sentence should end.

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what about the rampant number of gambling addictions that plague an increasing amount of people each year? Should the government just ignore that? Baylor University professor Earl Grinols, a gambling expert, estimates that society's cost for a single gambling addict is $10,000.

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Was this a particular study concerning online gamblers? Or just gamblers in general? The information is to vague to mean anything in this context.


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Why in the world would we introduce and advocate a more accessible method that allows you to easily gamble thousands of dollars away without leaving your house?

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Market economies are a bitch, aren't they? Actually providing services that consumers want to use, instead of tight, government regulation intended to protect the stupid masses from their stupid selves.

What about the people that gamble INTO thousands of dollars (instead of away) while sitting in their underwear at home? Why do you want to take away a means that, by their skills and dedication, they can make this money? Or is the glass just always half empty?


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College students are using online betting as a quick fix to pay their rent, grab some extra cash, and have a good time.

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Wait, this is against everything you just said... people who gamble online always lose, don't they? How can they grab extra cash if they're gambling away thousands of dollars?


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Most students already have thousands of dollars in debt simply from college loans. Why are we choosing to add to our debt on a whim?

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Anyone who uses borrowed money to gambling has a problem, and needs to have it addressed.


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Well, a bit of justification is that people have taken gambling to extremes and are betting on anything and everything you could possibly imagine.

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People aren't taking internet porn to extremes? You wouldn't believe what you can find out there. This comparison isn't valid. And you continue assuming everyone who gambles online is signing away their checks to feed the monster. How many billions of dollars per year are spent on porn site fees?

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Students should be concentrating on earning money from hard work, not from the click of a mouse and a bit of luck. Internet gambling sends the message that earning money is fun and easy you just sign online, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. But life doesn't work that way.

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Online gambling doesn't work that way, either. If you spent some time investigating both sides of the story, perhaps you would see that winning players spend a lot of time, effort, and study to improve their game and make sure they become winning players.

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Internet gambling isn't setting a good, moral example of how to earn an honest living and I welcome legislation that would regulate it.

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It sounds like you want to return to purtanism, and letting the government define morality. I say no to this, thank you very much. The United States was founded and particularly designed to escape this type of government. We fight against tyrannical theocracies, like the Taliban. Americans fight and die for freedom, not the enforcement of proper and good morality.

KO

[FlFishOn]

" I would love to write a responce letter to our newspaper "

Better learn to speeel first.^^^ You in college? WTF????????

[archmagi]

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You might suggest that the the same morals argument can be made about alcohol drinking, parties, sexual contact between students etc. If they pick on gambling as the weak link, the others could be next.

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that's why you shouldn't give an inch to fanatics [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[MrGrob]

"Online gambling can empty a student's wallet just as quickly as it can bulk it up. Our government has fought to ban online gambling, declaring it a threat to public morals. I agree that the idea of allowing citizens to legally bet obscene amounts of money on the internet is detrimental to our country for several reasons."

I read no more then this...

Last I understood the US of A it was NOT MOTHER AMERICA. (I wonder how many students today understand that comment.) It is not the job of the government to protect the people from themselves.

This is typical leftist bull.

[AngryCola]

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I am more serious here than you can possibly imagine.

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I'm pretty sure he can imagine it.

You're wrong.

[SoftcoreRevolt]

The Republicans want to ban the sex, the Democrats want to ban the violence.

Pretty much both dislike gambling.

[spamuell]

This is typical leftist bull.

So deciding what is and is not "moral" and imposing those values on others is leftist now?

Like all those leftists who disapprove of homosexuality and single mothers and abortion. Those leftist bastards.

[IggyWH]

Natalie is a [censored]...

I say you wine & dine her, [censored] her in the ass, spluge on her face, take a picture of it and hand out copies at the union.

[Phill S]

heres an angle to come from perhaps.

draw an analogy to the prohibision (i know i cant spell, dont point it out) of alcohol.

##note, im not american, so do some research, but heres my understanding##

people drunk for centuries. then to 'save' people, it was banned. [censored] alcohol was made than made people blind. mafia style mobs made obscene amounts of money. governemnt saw the error of its ways. legalised alcohol and then taxed it heavily.

currently online gambling is in the mafia getting rich bit. legalising it will allow the major operators to operate in the US. they will do this cos the people would prefer that company rather than some faceless offshore company.

people get to gamble, governemnt gets a cut of $10B and everyone is happy.

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or you could just call her an ignorant bitch and tell her to go do some [censored] research before writing an article for a paper.

whatever you feel is more appropriate.

Phill

[MicroBob]

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Baylor University professor Earl Grinols, a gambling expert

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My favorite part.
Is he the same type of gambling 'expert' who has claimed that online-poker can't be beat because there are too many robots playing in the games with the humans.
All players who think they are just playing against 'real people' are kidding themselves according to some of these gambling 'experts'.



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estimates that society's cost for a single gambling addict is $10,000.

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Where the hell did this 'estimate' come from?

What addicts are we talking about here?


Anyone else think this 'expert' just made this up?



In other news....I just saw on the news that the Tenn Lottery is proud to announce a 'new, exciting cash-4 game' that you can play online.
Tickets cost $0.50 to $1 but you can buy as many as you want...and you can play it online.
"Good luck!!" said the cheerful news-anchor.



Every time the Tenn Lottery adds a new game (which all seem to be to be exactly the same as all of the other games) it gets reported on the local TV news like it's some sort of big event.


I have yet to see any stories coinciding with it regarding those who are spending too much freaking money on these really bad games.

I also have yet to see any stories regarding the hypocricy of funding our school system and scholarship programs via low-income earning gambling-addicts.


It's one thing for the news to report the daily lottery numbers. People do play and are curious to know if they won so this is acceptable I suppose.

But for all of the local TV news channels to actively promote one specific gambling within the context of their news-cast is extremely troubling.