Friday, June 6, 2008

The truth about internet gambling and laws banning it (part 1)

By Steve Briggs

Internet gambling at online casinos has been stamped with a bad reputation from the start and it was the online casinos that earned it that repuation. Cheating and fraud were rampant with no place for victims to turn save the gambling guides and casino portals of which only a few were willing to take on the very places that sponsored their websites. As time went on however the base of online casinos grew from only a few to the thousands that exist today. This allowed for those casino portals and gambling guides that did care about the quality of treatment their surfers receive, to have options such as choosing to either not allow rogue casinos to advertise on their sites or give the casino a choice of either making things right with the surfers that signed up to play there through that casino portal or have any relationship severed forever and that casino be put on a blacklist. Of course rogue casinos still exist today but the damage they inflict is much less than before because the gamblers are becoming more educated (thanks in large to gambling websites) and choosing their casinos not from a search engine's results but from a reputable casino portal or gambling guide.

Money laundering was the next big concern and reason for banning internet gambling. Governments such as the United States are quick to claim that terrorists are using online casinos to launder large amounts of money. This simply is not true and it is proven every day by the online casinos. They have no wish to be associated with terrorists and although they are not required by their licensing in many instances, proof of identity checks are done on any large cash-out which are much more stringent than some other industries that are ripe for laundering money have ever conceived.

One other concern was underage gambling but that arguement really doesn't hold water when you consider that if a pornographic website can be considered safe to operate on the internet using only the fact that they require a credit card as proof of being of age.

(end part 1)

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