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POLL: Internet Gambling

Queasy

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Ban It, Regulate It, or Leave It Alone?

Senate lawmakers on Tuesday said they will try again to outlaw Internet gambling, while some experts say U.S. states should instead try to regulate the $4 billion industry.
Top lawmakers on the Senate Banking and Finance Committee said they supported a bill that would require credit card companies and payment services such as PayPal to block money transfers to Internet gambling sites.

"This legislation represents a measured and appropriate response to a demonstrated social evil that grows worse every day," said Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who chairs the committee.



Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes, the committee's top Democrat, said he also supported the bill.

A similar bill was approved by a House of Representatives committee last week.

Christiansen Capital Advisors, which tracks the gambling industry, estimates online gambling sites will take in roughly $4 billion this year, half from U.S. residents.

Shelby and other critics say online gambling sites flout local regulations and provide access to children and adults struggling with gambling addiction. Internet casinos also serve as a cover for money laundering and provide no guaranteed payouts, they say.

"Anybody who gambles over the Internet is probably making a sucker bet," said Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who sponsored the bill.

As nearly all of the industry's 1,800 Web sites are based offshore, an outright ban would do little good. Instead, lawmakers seek to prevent gamblers from paying their debts.

Many credit card issuers, stung by disputed charges, have voluntarily blocked online gambling transactions. Card firms now block roughly four out of five online gambling payments, said Richard Fischer, a lawyer who advises the industry.

But one former state regulator said Kyl's approach would encourage gamblers to use forms of payment that could not be blocked as easily.

Governments would be better off regulating the industry as the United Kingdom has done, said Frank Catania, a former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

"It is my hope that members of this committee will recognize that legalization and strict regulation, rather than prohibition, could achieve important policy goals," said Catania, now a gambling-industry consultant.

A bill introduced last week in the House would set up a commission to figure out how best to regulate the industry.

Congress has tried to outlaw Internet gambling for years, but no bill has passed both chambers due to procedural issues and infighting among casinos, dog tracks and horse tracks.

Story Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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While I believe it is quite dangerous, I also believe that people should be responsible for their own stupidity.

Leave it alone.

Viper GTS
 
Originally posted by: McPhreak
Bah...Congress is just pissed none of that $4 billion is going into their own pockets.
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Nail - Head - you drove it through the wood you hit it so hard
 
Gambling is fun for many people and a disease for others not unlike drugs or alcohol. How do allow people who can control their use of such things in a healthy manner to do so without allwing those who can't to sink. It's a challenging problem and I don't think an either or approach is the right one.
 
I won $250 on an online casino a while back

They gave me $20 free.....I got it up to $300 at one point playing roulette, then it started dropping so I cashed out 🙂
 
I won $500 on an online Casino. Deposited $256 of my own. Here's a little trick, play Blackjack, start with $1 and always double your bet when you lose (Betting scheme: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256). That means you realistically have to lose 7 in a row before you get into big money. Everytime you win you only go up a buck from where you were when you started your losing streak, but you'll never lose in the long run and maybe you'll hit Blackjack when you are betting 64 or more....however you need to have big money, big cajones, and a large max bet, mainly big cajones. However I'd rather do this at a live Casino b/c I don't trust the online "decks" of cards.


Oh, my vote: Leave it alone, it is a free country last I checked, if you want to blow 20 grand online gambling, tough break for you....Call 1-800-bets-off


 
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
While I believe it is quite dangerous, I also believe that people should be responsible for their own stupidity.

Leave it alone.

Viper GTS
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Agreed.

 
Originally posted by: Staley8
I won $500 on an online Casino. Deposited $256 of my own. Here's a little trick, play Blackjack, start with $1 and always double your bet when you lose (Betting scheme: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256). That means you realistically have to lose 7 in a row before you get into big money. Everytime you win you only go up a buck from where you were when you started your losing streak, but you'll never lose in the long run and maybe you'll hit Blackjack when you are betting 64 or more....however you need to have big money, big cajones, and a large max bet, mainly big cajones. However I'd rather do this at a live Casino b/c I don't trust the online "decks" of cards.
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NEVER say never. That is a HORRIBLE strategy... someone once posted a very well-written reason why in an older blackjack/Vegas thread.
 
There are very few things in the world as dangerous as a bored politician.
rolleye.gif
 
Originally posted by: Dezign
Originally posted by: Staley8
I won $500 on an online Casino. Deposited $256 of my own. Here's a little trick, play Blackjack, start with $1 and always double your bet when you lose (Betting scheme: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256). That means you realistically have to lose 7 in a row before you get into big money. Everytime you win you only go up a buck from where you were when you started your losing streak, but you'll never lose in the long run and maybe you'll hit Blackjack when you are betting 64 or more....however you need to have big money, big cajones, and a large max bet, mainly big cajones. However I'd rather do this at a live Casino b/c I don't trust the online "decks" of cards.
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NEVER say never. That is a HORRIBLE strategy... someone once posted a very well-written reason why in an older blackjack/Vegas thread.
Click to expand...


Ok, maybe I shouldn't have said NEVER, but if you can tell me why this stategy won't work every time I'd be glad to hear it. It looks like simple math logic to me but again I might be wrong. That being said you have to stick to the strategy no matter what and like I said before you have to find a table with $1 min and a huge max....so that in itself may not exist. You'll also have to play for hours to make any big gains seeing how you make a buck everytime you win.
 
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