Can a Mod please tell me the status of Easybet.com? They say that they only deal with Canadian players and will not be affected by the new Safe Ports Act....
The recent bill signed by George Bush and the private member's bill issued by Jeff Leal in Ontario, Canada, are designed to curtail online betting. In both cases, the governments want you to feel that they are somehow making a dent in the area of problem gambling, particularly among young people by stomping out sports and poker betting online. At the same time, the U.S. government has created an exemption for horse racing and lotteries and in Canada, Jeff Leal himself stated that the main concern with online gambling is that it is taking away revenue from the lotteries, race tracks and the video lottery terminals located at the racetrack.
So the question has to be asked as to whether the U.S. and Ontario provincial governments are on the right track by trying to stop online gambling if their stated goal is to stomp out problem gambling and gambling by minors. Given the above facts, the answer would seem to be "no". But the best source to answer of course is Gambler's Anonymous which helps those who are pathological gamblers. According to studies done by problem gambling groups, 2/3 of people in their programs are there as a result of video lottery terminals. And 1/3 of the people at the problem gambling programs play the lottery on a regular basis. Contrarily, less than 5% of the problem gamblers are there due to horse racing or sports betting. In fact video lottery terminals have been deemed "the crack cocaine of gambling" because it is so highly addictive. Most vlt players become addicted to gambling in less than a year. Contrarily sports bettors and poker players take over 4 years of playing before they start becoming problem gamblers.
The recent bill signed by George Bush and the private member's bill issued by Jeff Leal in Ontario, Canada, are designed to curtail online betting. In both cases, the governments want you to feel that they are somehow making a dent in the area of problem gambling, particularly among young people by stomping out sports and poker betting online. At the same time, the U.S. government has created an exemption for horse racing and lotteries and in Canada, Jeff Leal himself stated that the main concern with online gambling is that it is taking away revenue from the lotteries, race tracks and the video lottery terminals located at the racetrack.
So the question has to be asked as to whether the U.S. and Ontario provincial governments are on the right track by trying to stop online gambling if their stated goal is to stomp out problem gambling and gambling by minors. Given the above facts, the answer would seem to be "no". But the best source to answer of course is Gambler's Anonymous which helps those who are pathological gamblers. According to studies done by problem gambling groups, 2/3 of people in their programs are there as a result of video lottery terminals. And 1/3 of the people at the problem gambling programs play the lottery on a regular basis. Contrarily, less than 5% of the problem gamblers are there due to horse racing or sports betting. In fact video lottery terminals have been deemed "the crack cocaine of gambling" because it is so highly addictive. Most vlt players become addicted to gambling in less than a year. Contrarily sports bettors and poker players take over 4 years of playing before they start becoming problem gamblers.
