Tag Archives: online gambling
Why Legalisation Of Online Casinos Is Such A Problem
Online gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry. If you look at statistics page on some of the most popular casino websites, you’ll see astonishing figures. The overall amount of money paid out to players within just one month is almost 32 million GBP. This means just one site pays out over 1 million per day, over 50,000 per hour. If you consider the fact that people lose much more often than they win, the amount of money that online casino operators should get is unbelievable.
Now can you imagine the government officials watching this turnover and not wanting to dip their fingers into the pot? Certainly not! If something can be taxed, it should be taxed. The funniest thing is that online casinos appeared before the online gambling law was invented. Thus, the industry was regulated by some of the older rules that were more or less applicable to a new type of entertainment, while some of the aspects remained literally uncontrolled.
It is nearly impossible to supervise online casinos for one simple reason: it’s hard to control anything on the web. Yet, the government wants to benefit from the successful business tax the casinos and tax the winnings. But politics is a tricky thing; the head of the state can’t just appear on one the morning TV shows and say “Dear fellow countrymen, from now on you’ll have to pay!” It’s not medieval times when things like this could have been done easily (without the TV bit, of course). However banning something that can affect the government’s plan is simple.
That’s what we see happening in the United States. It is obvious that officials are playing their own games while millions of people can’t afford to do something that is perfectly legal in other civilised countries. The government is interested in making online gambling legal, but they want to make maximum profit from this legalisation. Without any doubt, there’s huge money involved and casino operators will have to pay a lot before they will be able to officially start paying taxes.
While gamblers in most European countries can pretty much freely enjoy an online poker tournament or online roulette, some EU members try to outlaw online casinos that operate outside the borders of their state. The reason never changes it is money. They don’t want online gambling to be run along the same guidelines as the free market that operates throughout the EU, because in this case their state-owned online casinos will have to compete against foreign casinos. Well, as long as at least local sites are accessible, Europeans will probably not get too upset by these restrictions.
Ontario Lottery to Launch Online Gaming Site
Ontario Lottery to Launch Online Gaming Site
A second Canadian Provincial lottery may enter the internet gambling industry. Earlier in the year the British Columbia Lottery Corporation launched an online gaming website. Ste stated purpose was to provide BC residents with a safe alternative to unlicensed and unregulated offshore gambling sites. Some reporters were cynical about the move online because earlier the BC government condemned online gambling as a destructive addicting vice. The launch of the website was not without problems. The site crashed shortly after it was launched due to heavy traffic from curious BC punters. Actually the site’s crash shows heavy demand for safe online gambling. Early opposition was fierce from both political parties but the lure of the $100 million dollars spent annually by BC gamblers at offshore websites was too great for the BC government to pass up. The BC lottery is the first North American jurisdiction to offer online gambling. Unfortunately participation is limited to BC residents.
Recently The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation announced that it will launch its own online gambling site sometime in 2012. Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan pointed out that Ontario punters spend an estimated $400 million dollars a year at offshore gaming sites. Duncan stated, “Globally, Internet gaming has become a prominent trend.” Duncan said that the province has asked the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation to build a “socially responsible and secure” gambling website that would include consumer protections and “encourages responsible gaming.”
The move could help the Ontario Lottery increase flagging sales. The Ontario lottery generates revenues of about $1.7 billion dollars a year but recently the numbers have been declining. A government spokesman estimated that within five years the website could generate an additional $100 million dollars a year. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is trying to figure out how to regulate cyber gambling to prevent abuses and compulsive gambling. Critics voiced the usual complaints and concerns, underage gambling, gambling ‘addiction’ and one politician made the astounding claim that all internet gamblers are ‘addicted.’
Despite objections the project is expected to go forward on schedule. Since the technology is already in place the Ontario lottery can learn from the mistakes made by the BC lottery when they launched their website. Hopefully at some point Americans will be able to join in the fun!