Gamblor’s World

at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/25/60minutes/main4633254.shtml

LaPlante, D. A., LaBrie, R. A., Nelson, S. E., Schumann, A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2007).
Scientific medical research advances in progressive stages and at a deliberate pace. This approach to knowledge development requires several stages of inquiry, analysis, and review before advocacy and action can occur. Although this structure might frustrate some (e.g., anti-gambling activists and pro-gaming corporations), it is essential to the accumulation of accurate information. Too often, well-meaning people rush ahead of scientific knowledge (e.g., despite limited evidence, policy makers worldwide are legislating Internet gaming issues). Doing so has three potential costs: (1) over-intervention for problems that are more minimal than expected or non-existent; (2) insufficient response for circumstances that require specific interventions; or (3) inappropriately applied and potentially damaging interventions for problems that require unique strategies that are not obvious from anecdotal observation. The principle of unanticipated consequences suggests that prematurely accepting information or adopting a public policy position about a phenomenon can create more confusion than it resolves.

full report at: http://www.basisonline.org/editorials.htm

Author:
Source: EOG.com
Published Date: May 07, 2007

Description:
Antigua has expressed its disappointment in many ways since the US responded negatively last week to the WTO decision on online gambling which clearly favored Antigua. In many ways, experts are suggesting that the US is simply choosing to take its toys home and ignore the WTO ruling. Many wonder whether the United States can get away with this unprecedented action? Online gamblers are worried they can and so are investors who sent Internet gambling stocks even lower last week.

International Herald Tribune article extract in italics.

On Friday, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John K. Veroneau said federal and state laws have prohibited for-profit interstate gambling operations for decades. “It would be nonsensical for the U.S. to make a commitment to open up interstate gambling for foreign providers.”

Veroneau said the WTO process allows the U.S. to clarify its restrictions to “recreational services” offered internationally.

In the early 1990s, when the U.S. was drawing up international commitments to open its market to different services, gambling prohibitions weren’t spelled out, he said. A clarification undercuts WTO member claims for compensation in lost revenue as a result of the ban, he added.

http://www.iht. com/articles/ ap/2007/05/ 04/business/ NA-FIN-US- WTO-Internet- Gambling. php

This GATS clarification may have enormous ramifications in relation to the future world trade in gambling supply outlets and globalisation of the gambling industry.

April 7, 2007, Eye On Gambling

It wasn’t difficult for former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato to decide last month to lobby for the Poker Players Alliance as it seeks to repeal an Internet gambling ban.

“I’ve known some of the people at PPA and some, I actually played with. They knew of my enthusiasm for the game,” D’Amato said in a phone interview from New York City.

During D’Amato’s 18 years in the Senate, the New York Republican was known for having Thursday night poker games in his Capitol Hill office, and he still plays weekly.

After the House returns from a two-week recess on April 17, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is expected to introduce legislation to repeal an Internet gambling ban approved by Congress last year.

Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev., also plan to unveil a bill calling for an 18-month study of Internet gambling by the National Academy of Sciences.

D’Amato, 69, said he is working with Frank and the Nevadans, but it still isn’t clear how many bills will be introduced or when.

“We are not going to get into the pride of authorship,” D’Amato said. “We’re just working to produce legislative remedies.”

Poker players are being discriminated against by the ban, which does not prohibit state lotteries, fantasy sports or horse racing bets, D’Amato said. He describes the ban as an “unreasonable constraint” on the rights of individuals to use the Internet.

“Are we saying you have a right to own a gun in your own house, but you can’t use your computer to play poker on the Internet? It’s ridiculous,” D’Amato said.

The ban makes it a crime to use credit cards or online financial devices to pay for casino games and sports betting on the Internet.

Even though former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had to attach the ban to a port security bill in the waning days of Congress last year to get it passed. Repealing it will not be easy.

Roll call votes to ban Internet gambling were 317-93 in the House last July and 90-10 in the Senate eight years earlier.

The National Football League strongly supports the ban, and NFL Executive Vice President Joe Browne said Internet gambling is contrary to federal and state statutes.

“The spirit of Congress, going back for decades, has always been against gambling on college and professional sports,” Browne said.

As for D’Amato, Browne said, “he has always been a good spokesman for whatever cause he represents and he has been on the opposite side of professional sports on several occasions.”

D’Amato said Congress may have no choice but to consider a repeal after the World Trade Organization last week declared the ban illegal.

The WTO ruled in favor of Antigua and Barbuda, a Caribbean nation that defied U.S. efforts to outlaw the $12 billion Internet gambling industry. “I think, in the fullness of time, this (WTO decision) may be one of the linchpins in bringing about a change in the law,” D’Amato said.

After returning from a recent trip to the Isle of Man, which is located near Britain and allows Internet gambling, D’Amato said he is convinced online wagering can be effectively regulated.

Asked if Internet gambling should be regulated and taxed, D’Amato said, “Absolutely.”

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Site Copyright 2006 - Eye On Gambling

by PokerPages.com

http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news/news/poland-to-legalize-online-poker-and-online-gambling–29630.htm

Wed, Apr 4th, 2007 @ 12:00am

Poland is planning to introduce regulations to license and tax online gambling similar to those in Italy, according to a recent article in the Polish newspaper, The Warsaw Voice, signaling that European markets continue to open up for online poker and online gambling.

Poland’s decision follows the favorable ruling for online poker and online gambling in the Placanica case by the European Court of Justice (ECoJ) in March

The courts ruled that Italy cannot use criminal law to ban gaming companies licensed in another EU nation from taking bets in Italy.

The court’s ruling concerns three bookmakers who had accepted bets in Italy on behalf of British-licensed firm Stanley International Betting (SIB), where SIB had no license to conduct bookmaking business in Italy.

The ruling says that an online gambling operator who holds a license issued in one EU member state has the right to provide similar services throughout the European Union.

“National regulations that prohibit the acceptance of bets unless one has a license issued by the relevant member state restrict the freedom of services,” said the court in substantiating its decision.

Under current Polish law, it is illegal to take part in gambling games offered from companies located in other countries.

But the number of online gambling sites doing business in Poland has been on a rapid rise, for several reasons.

First, it is practically impossible to enforce the ban on their operation. Second, costs are much higher to operate land-based casinos and arcades, and there are statutory restrictions on advertising them in Polish media. Third, Poland currently does not tax online gambling. Fourth, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA) passed last October caused online gaming sites to look for customers outside of the huge US market.

The Polish finance ministry is working to amend the gambling law to regulate and tax online gambling companies, similar to the way the UK’s Gambling Act of 2005 will do when it comes into force this September, and how Italy began to January 2007

The Italian government now collects a 3% tax from gaming companies on gaming revenues that Italian customers generate.

The value of the Polish market for online gambling (including online poker), lotteries and bookmakers is estimated to run into hundreds of millions or even billions of zlotys.

Analyses by the Gdansk Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR) show that such a move could on its own bring in extra annual receipts for the state budget of zl.133 million (USD 46.1 million, or GBP 23.3 million or EUR 34.5 million) from tax on gambling and an extra zl.12 million from income tax (USD 4.16 million, or GBP 2.11 million or EUR 3.11 million).

Jason Markusoff, The Edmonton Journal, Thursday, March 22, 2007

EDMONTON - An Alberta aboriginal band is rebuking Solicitor General Fred Lindsay’s “cease and desist” order on its proposed Internet gambling enterprise, insisting it’s a sovereign nation and not subject to provincial law.

Lindsay said Wednesday he won’t be stared down by the Alexander First Nation. Online casinos are outlawed in Alberta, and federal law gives the province authority to stop illegal gaming activity.

“My job is to enforce the Criminal Code, not negotiate it,” he told reporters.

The Edmonton-area band has set up a massive data centre to host online casino operators from overseas and has been approached by several gambling firms, said Cheryl Giblon, an Ontario-based official with a computer firm speaking for the Alexander band.

However, no gambling operations have begun and the band hasn’t collected any of the $20,000 US application fees, she said.

Trying to bolster its case, the Alexander band boasted it had the United Nations’ support, releasing a letter from Alberta aboriginal leader Willie Littlechild, who is a member of a United Nations body for aboriginal issues.

But the personal letter does not signal UN approval, said Gurston Dacks, a University of Alberta political scientist who specializes in aboriginal relations. “Although Mr. Littlechild is a distinguished Albertan and Canadian, the content of the letter refers to his view alone,” Dacks said.

Lindsay said if the band wants to argue about the Criminal Code, it should do so with the federal government.

Alexander Chief Raymond Arcand said in a news release issued Wednesday that gaming is an integral part of the band’s heritage and is willing to defend his case in court.

“The government of Alberta desires to ignore our sovereignty and our right to regulate online gaming transacted within our territory, along with all of the positives of our developing economic independence, and has chosen to launch this attack,” he said in the statement.

No Canadian judge has ever ruled in favour of an aboriginal group’s intrinsic right to run gambling operations, and Dacks said the band’s sovereignty claim is highly questionable.

“The Supreme Court of Canada has not ruled on sovereignty of First Nations, or on the self-governance rights, except in a very narrow sense in a small number of cases,” he said.

Federal and provincial officials have declared that a similar, long-running online venture by the Mohawk in Quebec also is illegal. No action has been taken against the Kahnawake band.

Described as ‘a leading world centre for the multidisciplinary study of the Internet and society, focusing on Internet-related research and teaching, and on informing policy-making and practice’.

see http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/

See 2006 conference presentations

at http://www.gregri.org/presentations.shtml

Online gambling makes it that much easier to lay down a quick hundred on Indianapolis Colts to win the Super Bowl
Curtis Stock, The Edmonton Journal; With files from CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, February 20, 2007
EDMONTON

Just one keystroke on your computer and you’ve got a bet down on the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl.

Click again, and you’ve bet (some might say with your heart) on the hometown Edmonton Oilers.

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The ease of accessibility to online gambling sites have made it a popular option with the betting folk, especially in Canada.
Shaughn Butts, The Journal

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Font: ****Don’t like the way the Super Bowl is going? Click again and make another wager at halftime.

Still not enough action? No problem. Play poker online while you watch the games you’ve bet on.

All this without ever leaving your house, or even getting dressed. All you need is a computer and a credit card to get some action on one of the hundreds of Internet gambling sites floating out there in cyberspace. It could be one in the afternoon or three in the morning.

The Internet is Las Vegas — no clocks, open 24 hours, seven days a week.

And that — the unfettered accessibility of gambling over the Internet — is turning out to be a potentially huge problem.

EASE OF ACCESS

Two University of Lethbridge professors, midway through what will be the world’s largest study of Internet gambling, are finding that the ease of access for sports bettors on the Internet is attracting far more problem gamblers than they initially feared.

“The indication is that those who gamble on the Internet are 10 times more likely to be problem gamblers than those who use other forms of gambling,” said Robert Williams, who is conducting the Lethbridge study with Robert Wood.

While other surveys indicate 3.5 per cent of the population are problem gamblers, this study of 13,000 Canadians and several thousand others worldwide indicates that 10 per cent of the people who gamble on the Internet fall into the at-risk/problem gambler category.

At-risk gamblers are defined as anyone who gambles daily and exhibits one of the 12 problem-gambling characteristics. Or, people who gamble less frequently, but exhibit two or more of some of these behaviours — gambling to recoup lost gambling money, feeling bad about gambling, borrowing money to gamble and gambling more than planned.

GAMBLE IN YOUR BIRTHDAY SUIT

“It’s a whole different ball game of gambling,” said Arnie Wexler, a certified compulsive gambling counsellor. “You can wake up in the middle of the night in your birthday suit, go to the computer and start gambling. You don’t need gas. You don’t need a phone and you are off and running and in a gambling establishment.

“It’s easier to gamble (on the Internet) than it is to buy a can of beer or a pack of cigarettes.”

Gambling sites first surfaced on the Internet a little more than a decade ago. In those early years, there were about 30 sites that took in $17 million.

Since then, gambling on the Internet has literally exploded, with hundreds of gambling sites swallowing up an

estimated $15 billion in revenues. Merrill Lynch predicts that total will grow to $48 billion by 2010.

Since betting on sports is illegal in Canada (unless you place your wager through the government-sanctioned Sport Select system), most of the Internet web sites are located offshore in places like Antigua, Gibraltar and

Costa Rica — jurisdictions that permit gambling that are beyond the legal range of Canadian and North American lawmakers.

The amount you can bet and the sports you can bet on are almost limitless on these sites. You can bet on a team, bet on total points, which player scores the first touchdown, the winning margin, you name it. Thegreek.com took wagers on just about every Olympic sport in Turin last year, even curling.

Bwin.com takes action on many sports, including every conceivable pro and semi-pro hockey league and some amateur ones — like the Alberta Junior Hockey League and the Alberta Golden Bears in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports realm. One of the gambling giants is Bodog.com, which was founded by Lloydminster native Calvin Ayre.

Not all the sites are offshore. Another of the largest Internet gambling jurisdictions is just outside Montreal on the Kahnawake Mohawk First Nations reserve — Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT).

With some 60 customers, MIT has most of the world’s top casino and poker sites. In 2005, MIT, which pays no taxes, made $17 million US on revenues of $24.7 million. The Kahnawake Mohawk First Nation insists it is not illegal to operate the sites there even though gambling in other parts of Canada is illegal. They

insist they maintain sovereign authority over Internet gambling on their territory, arguing gambling is part of their ancient rites and traditions.

Alexander First Nation, near Morinville, makes the same argument here in Alberta as it proposes to set up its own gambling commission, regulating and offering licences to Internet gambling operators.

No matter where the server for the sports gambling site is located, the lawfulness of such an enterprise is definitely a grey area. Talk to 10 different industry insiders or lawyers or politicians, and you’ll get 10 different answers.

So while it does seem clear that operating an Internet gambling site in Canada (except, perhaps, on reserves) is illegal, there is still some debate about whether a bet placed by a Canadian bettor to an offshore site is on the up and up.

NO CASES BEFORE COURTS

One of the problems is that the laws governing gambling were developed years before the Internet even existed, and there have been no cases go before the courts to set a legal precedent for Internet gambling. In fact, according to Bill Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada and author of Gambling America: an Encyclopedia, only one player — in the United States — has ever been prosecuted for gambling on the

Internet that he’s aware of. And even with him, the fact that he was caught was purely accidental, Thompson says. The culprit was actually being investigated for something else, and investigators caught him betting on the Internet.

But the legality of Internet gambling may be a moot point for another reason, according to Hugh Leuden, head of investigations for the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

“There is no way to enforce it,” Leuden explains. “I’d have to be sitting in your house.”

The legal debate is of little concern to bettors, who continue their wagering unabated. Most won’t know who is taking their bets. Most wouldn’t know or care where the gambling site is located.

And most don’t believe they will ever lose their shirts.

That’s where Williams’s and Wood’s concern over the high rate of Internet problem gamblers comes in.

The two Lethbridge researchers have also unearthed another concern — how young the Internet gamblers seem to be. Astonishingly, half the Internet gamblers in their study are age 21 or younger. The research also indicates that 80 per cent of the gamblers are male and that online poker, which generates an estimated $100 million a day in revenue, is by far the most popular form of Internet gambling. Many don’t consider poker a sport, but you can find TV poker games on all-sports channels almost any time of the day.

POKER ENTICING TO YOUNG ADULTS

Poker can be especially enticing to young adults because it’s been made to look cool on TV and many kids perceive it the way they do an X-Box or a Play Station — as a game of skill.

It’s not surprising that the younger set is embracing Internet gambling so eagerly given that they are the first generation raised in an environment where people have been actually able to bet on sports legally, and because they are computer savvy.

“There will always be new blood out there — young people more familiar with the Internet,” says Christopher Costigan, who resides in Miami, but has the servers for www.911Gambling.com in Lloydminster, Alberta.

Costigan says he worries about the gambling sites for money, but also about the many free-play sites, which are advertised at live sporting events and extensively on TV.

“Supposedly that is where people can go to practise their skill,” says Costigan. “What they actually are is a devious way of getting people to play real games. An awful lot of young people go to these free play sites.”

What it all adds up to is the potential social costs of an activity that now rages virtually unchecked.

As University of Alberta gaming expert Garry Smith warns: “A click of your mouse and you can lose your house.”

cstock@thejournal.canwest.com

U.S. LAWMAKERS FIGHT BACK

The online gaming industry has been on a long winning streak since the first betting sites surfaced on the Internet 12 years ago.

But in the United States, lawmakers have fought back with a new bill that makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to settle payments to Internet gaming sites.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed by U.S. President George Bush last October.

No such legislation is on the books in Canada, however.

“The bottom line is the law has not criminalized gaming, (in the U.S.) which is what a lot of people think,” says Michael Lipton, a lawyer from the Toronto firm Elkind & Lipton LLP who specializes in gaming law.

“They have only tried to stop the flow of money.”

The effect the U.S. legislation will have on the online gaming industry is still uncertain. But on the same day the Act was passed, two major British gaming companies, Sportingbet PLC and Leisure & Gaming PLC, sold their lucrative U.S. operations for $1 each, ridding themselves of a combined $20 million in liabilities they would have incurred in firing some 800 employees.