New Anti-Poker Bills are Worrisome
As a poker player that play exclusively online I am concerned with the new bill is the house right now directed at stopping Online Gambling.
These bills all seek to outlaw online gambling in the United States. One bill proposed by Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte would give the courts the ability to order ISPs to shutdown access to offshore gambling sites. I can't help but think of the recent outcry over China's internet censorship rules.
What is the real reason behind this recent push to ban online gambling? I know the bill proponents cite things like underage gambling and undetected problem gambling.
My response to these reasons are:
Underage gambling; I imaging that you could walk into any casino and find underage gamblers. There is no way to prevent this from happening. How many underage drinkers and smokers are there? The best hope to prevent this is to work with the online casinos to catch and prevent underage players.
Problem gamblers; This one is utterly ridiculous if you think about it for a minute. I'll give you an example as to why this should be a reason to support online gambling.
A player walks into a casino to play some blackjack, after an hour of play he's down 1 000 and is going for more money. Now even though this is good for the casino the dealer marks the player a potential problem gambler and they ask the player to leave the table/casino. Knowing that they won't be able to play at that table anymore they might try another table on the other side of the casino or they may leave the casino, Maybe they go home but chances are they walk down the street to another casino that has no idea he is a problem gambler and he drops another $1 000 at blackjack.
This scene can be repeated until he runs out of tables or casinos. However the next night this player can be right back at the same casinos loosing more money because the dealers may not recognize him or they may not be at work.
Now the same situation at an online casino might work something like this. The software flags a player as a problem gambler by looking at their betting history
and their play style over the past week, month, year or even lifetime of play at the online casino. The online casino can block a player from playing at the online casino for the night, the week, month or forever. The online casino can also explain why the block has happened and provide the player with contact numbers for help with their problem. But what about the player going to another online casino? Well why not regulate that online casinos to operate in the US must share information regarding problem gamblers with each other? This way when the players go from Online Casino 1 which has flagged them as a problem gambler to Online Casino 2, Online Casino 2 already knows he's a problem gambler and honors the ban imposed by Online Casino 1.
Sure there are way around this, new user names, fake addresses, new ISPs but the same argument holds for Land based casinos as the player could grow or shave a
beard, mustache, cut their hair, dress up/dress down even putting on a pair of glasses.
It's far easier to fool a human than it is a computer. But unfortunately a truly determined person will do what they need to achieve their goal, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.
I think the real push for this ban on internet gambling comes from land based casino lobbyists as they fear that their business model is under attack from Online Casinos.
My real objection doesn't come from shutting down online gambling in the US but from the invasion of my privacy and the sanctioned monitoring of my financial and online activities. I urge everyone to contact their representative and let them know what you think about these bills.
That's all, I fold!
These bills all seek to outlaw online gambling in the United States. One bill proposed by Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte would give the courts the ability to order ISPs to shutdown access to offshore gambling sites. I can't help but think of the recent outcry over China's internet censorship rules.
What is the real reason behind this recent push to ban online gambling? I know the bill proponents cite things like underage gambling and undetected problem gambling.
My response to these reasons are:
Underage gambling; I imaging that you could walk into any casino and find underage gamblers. There is no way to prevent this from happening. How many underage drinkers and smokers are there? The best hope to prevent this is to work with the online casinos to catch and prevent underage players.
Problem gamblers; This one is utterly ridiculous if you think about it for a minute. I'll give you an example as to why this should be a reason to support online gambling.
A player walks into a casino to play some blackjack, after an hour of play he's down 1 000 and is going for more money. Now even though this is good for the casino the dealer marks the player a potential problem gambler and they ask the player to leave the table/casino. Knowing that they won't be able to play at that table anymore they might try another table on the other side of the casino or they may leave the casino, Maybe they go home but chances are they walk down the street to another casino that has no idea he is a problem gambler and he drops another $1 000 at blackjack.
This scene can be repeated until he runs out of tables or casinos. However the next night this player can be right back at the same casinos loosing more money because the dealers may not recognize him or they may not be at work.
Now the same situation at an online casino might work something like this. The software flags a player as a problem gambler by looking at their betting history
and their play style over the past week, month, year or even lifetime of play at the online casino. The online casino can block a player from playing at the online casino for the night, the week, month or forever. The online casino can also explain why the block has happened and provide the player with contact numbers for help with their problem. But what about the player going to another online casino? Well why not regulate that online casinos to operate in the US must share information regarding problem gamblers with each other? This way when the players go from Online Casino 1 which has flagged them as a problem gambler to Online Casino 2, Online Casino 2 already knows he's a problem gambler and honors the ban imposed by Online Casino 1.
Sure there are way around this, new user names, fake addresses, new ISPs but the same argument holds for Land based casinos as the player could grow or shave a
beard, mustache, cut their hair, dress up/dress down even putting on a pair of glasses.
It's far easier to fool a human than it is a computer. But unfortunately a truly determined person will do what they need to achieve their goal, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.
I think the real push for this ban on internet gambling comes from land based casino lobbyists as they fear that their business model is under attack from Online Casinos.
My real objection doesn't come from shutting down online gambling in the US but from the invasion of my privacy and the sanctioned monitoring of my financial and online activities. I urge everyone to contact their representative and let them know what you think about these bills.
That's all, I fold!
posted by Poker Guy at
8:52 AM
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