Gambling and Online Gambling-The Case for Legalisation

Federal and state lawmakers in the United States as well as elsewhere, are still against the legalisation of online gambling for the most part, and they have studies and polls to support their anti-gambling attitude. Many people still feel that gambling is an immoral activity and allowing people to readily access offshore gambling companies through the Internet, without exposing themselves to the social stigma that going to an actual brick-and-mortar casino usually carries, will only cause problem gambling issues to escalate in the long run. Another major point to ponder in the debate for legal online gambling is the protection of potential underage gamblers. Some lawmakers argue that the systems that thus far have been brought to bear by gambling supporters are simply not technically up to the task.

According to some of the experts on the other side of the barricade however, the dangers of legal online gambling have been blown far out of proportion by its opponents. Some of these experts argue that there are plenty of similar points in favor of legalisation, however there has been an extremely minute amount of spotlight shone on these issues, because of the lack of government-funded studies. Government money always seems to go to the opponents of online gambling, while its supporters are pretty much on their own when it comes to peddling their side of the matter.
There are however – much less publicised – studies out there which support the legalisation of gambling from several angles, some of which are quite preposterous indeed. One such study claims that gambling is actually healthy for people, and it seems to list a set of medical quotes in making that point. According to another study, people exposed to online gambling have a much reduced tendency to develop any sort of obsessive-compulsive disorders as a result of it. The said study says that only around 1% of those exposed to gambling ever get to develop any sort of issues, which is quite minute indeed compared to alcohol and tobacco, which are both perfectly legal and which tend to develop addiction in a much larger percentage of those exposed to them.

According to some of the experts on the other side of the barricade however, the dangers of legal online gambling have been blown far out of proportion by its opponents. Some of these experts argue that there are plenty of similar points in favor of legalisation, however there has been an extremely minute amount of spotlight shone on these issues, because of the lack of government-funded studies. Government money always seems to go to the opponents of online gambling, while its supporters are pretty much on their own when it comes to peddling their side of the matter.There are however – much less publicised – studies out there which support the legalisation of gambling from several angles, some of which are quite preposterous indeed. One such study claims that gambling is actually healthy for people, and it seems to list a set of medical quotes in making that point. According to another study, people exposed to online gambling have a much reduced tendency to develop any sort of obsessive-compulsive disorders as a result of it. The said study says that only around 1% of those exposed to gambling ever get to develop any sort of issues, which is quite minute indeed compared to alcohol and tobacco, which are both perfectly legal and which tend to develop addiction in a much larger percentage of those exposed to them.

According to some of the experts who have aligned their expertise in support of legal online gambling, keeping the activity illegal actually fuels problem gambling because it denies funds for the treatment of individual cases and it leaves regular gamblers without any sort of legal protection, fully exposed to the caprices of potentially corrupt and utterly untraceable offshore gambling operators.

A completely separate issue is the legalisation of online poker which is still considered a game of skill by the majority of its proponents and as such, it cannot be tossed into the same pot with online gambling. Online poker is already legal in two states and New Jersey will join the list in March given that Gov. Chris Christie has just cast a conditional veto on a bill proposed by Sen. Raymond Lesniak, which will now be amended and returned to the governor’s desk in March.