Where Is Choice In The Great Online Gambling Debate?
As a seasoned Canadian online gambler, I am no stranger to the online gambling industry - both in Canada and internationally - and I am fully aware of the controversy surrounding this popular and highly entertaining internet activity. So it was with much interest that I read a recent online article slamming the Canadian government for not following the example of our neighbors to the south in 'going after' offshore online gambling firms, payment processors and in some cases their most senior executives.
It still amazes me that in countries built on democracy and freedom, that their respective governments aim to control people by dictating what they can and cannot do. In the case of America, government officials are up in arms about the millions of dollars gambler 'choose' to gamble at online sites - none of which are licensed or regulated in the country. While their main motive is clearly to prevent hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars from leaving the country untaxed, they hide behind behind other reasons.
They want the American online gambling public to believe that their motive is to 'protect them from unscrupulous offshore online gambling sites and operators.' Now anybody with half a brain knows this nothing but horse pucky. Sure, there are unscrupulous operators in operation - and always will be - but thanks to word- of-mouth, online gambling blogs and social networking sites, most of these ultimately fall by the wayside as news of their unscrupulous activities fast gets around, and players boycott them.
No, what U.S. authorities do not want address publicly is that like it or not, offshore online gambling provide a valuable service to U.S. online gamblers. Otherwise millions of Americans would not gamble online, or - and herein lies the rub - 'choose' to gamble online. No one is holding a gun to the head of Americans to gamble over the internet. They, like the millions of gambling fans from other parts of the globe, gamble online because they 'choose' to. Because they enjoy it. Because they are adults.
An 18-year-old in America is old enough to have the choice to buy a lethal weapon, buy cigarettes, buy pornography, star in pornography, join the army and take part in countless other adult pursuits. Why then when American online gamblers - the bulk of whom are well aware of the U.S. government's anti-online gambling stance - 'choose' to gamble online, are they treated like children caught playing with matches? The American dream is built on freedom and choice, so what of online gambling choice?
To the writer of the above-mentioned article harping on the Canadian government's failure to take a page out of the American ant-online gambling playbook, I say to you: Perhaps the Canadian government's 'choice' to allow Canadians to gamble online as they see fit is in recognition of its citizens right to choose for themselves what activities to partake in as adults, recognizing that as adults it is up to them to deal with the consequences of their actions, which after all is what being an adult is all about, is it not?
 | Posted by Anonymous at 06:08 on 6 June 2011 |
