Essay, Research Paper: Online Gambling

Online Gaming
There has been a new trend in gaming in the United States and all over the world, that new trend is online gaming. It is now possible to gamble and wager on sporting events without ever having to leave the comfort of you own home. There are many people who are against the online gaming industry and many people for it. Some of the big name casino s, such as Harrah s, Trump, and MGM Grand worry that online gaming will cut their profits and their volume of gamblers that visit their casinos. There is legislation in the works that would outlaw online gaming, but it is still legal for now. There are also questions on how to go about policing the online gaming industry, since a lot of online casinos are run from offshore, where online gambling is perfectly legal. How could the United States make online gaming illegal when most of it is done from countries that make it legal to do so?
Online gaming is growing by the day, more and more online casinos are popping up on the Internet everyday. Online gambling is defined as the placing of bets on sports or casino type games over the Internet (www.netbet.orq/faq01.html). Gambling online is when the betting, playing, and collection of money is done over the Internet. An online casino is where the betting is done. There are three basic types: Those that require a program to be downloaded to play the games. These usually offer good graphics, sound, and animation. Secondly, there are the online casinos that use Java, an Internet programming language. These casinos are basically the same as the first type but all the gaming is done via you Internet browser, there is nothing to be downloaded to your computer. Thirdly, there is the no frills HTML based online casino. These are straightforward gambling sites, where there is no sound or animation, and this makes the game play much faster and smoother.
Monies are transferred on these sites a number of ways. Most sites make you set up an account, where you fill out a form and decided how you are going to get your money into your account. This can be done by a number of methods: wiring, cashier checks, money orders, and even credit cards. Your account works like an account in a bank, you make deposits to play the games and you can cash out when you want to take your money and leave. You can leave you money in the account to be used at another time. When you come back you just need your account login and password that you can either pick or is given to you by the site. Your money is secured the same way as any other site that allows money to change hands. Most sites use secure server to make transactions so that no one can get access to your money but you. Licensing by the government protects your personal information and credit card numbers.
Once inside these virtual casinos you can play all the games that you would normally see in a live casino. The rules and game play are the same in online games, just as in a live casino. There are many different graphics and animation to liven up the experience. These casinos try to copy live casinos as much a possible. At an online site one can gamble without having the extra expense of lodging and food while vacationing at the casinos.
The world of online gaming has come under much heat from the government. They are trying to make it illegal to gamble online in the United States. There are a few problems with this, the most important is the fact that most of the online casinos are set up in offshore countries where it is a perfectly legal business practice. This idea has a lot of support from many governmental divisions. The Congress will be voting on a bill to make it illegal to gamble in an online casino. The FBI and the National Gambling Impact Study Commission also support the banning of online gambling in the United States (http://www.casinos-gambling.com/legal). The bill that is before congress is the Kyl Bill.
The Kyl Bill is named after Sen. John Kyl, a Republican from Arizona. The Kyl Bill would make it illegal to gamble online from within the US borders. The problem with this bill is that it would be very hard to enforce. Since most of the online casinos operate from countries where it is legal to operate an online casino, the law enforcers would have to somehow stop people in the US from accessing these sites. This would be an extremely difficult task to accomplish. Kyl is hoping that Internet service providers can help the government stop people from gambling online. If the law passes Internet service providers would be required to make it impossible for Americans to access these sites.
There are a few problems with this. Firstly The Internet is a fluid, complex entity. It was designed to route around obstacles. It overcomes any boundaries that can be drawn, whether rooted in size, geography or law. Because the Internet represents an ever-growing interconnected network, no one entity can control or speak for the entire system,' said David G. Jemmett, testifying on behalf of ISPs before the House Judiciary Committee (http://www.casinos-gambling.com/legal). Secondly, any site that was identified as an online casino could change its location on the web within minutes. Thirdly it would be a lot to ask of an ISP to monitor this when all they do is connect them to the web. It would be costly and time consuming for the ISPs to do so.
Online casinos offer gaming in a Vegas type atmosphere without leaving your home. Online gaming is under investigation with respect to the legality of it. Online gaming remains legal for now, but probably not for long, since the ban has strong support from most of Washington. How the ban might be policed is not yet determined. With the current technology and standing of the Internet it does not yet seem possible to enforce any such ban. Online casinos are here to stay but in what capacity is still up in the air.
Works Consulted
Gaming Report [www document]. URL
http://www.onlinecasinonews.com/section
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Ito, Tim and Sharisa staples (June 1999). The Odds on
Prohibiting Web Bets [www document]. URL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-srv/
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The Online Gambling FAQ [www document]. URL http://
www.netbet.org/faq.html
Online Gambling Survives Legal Attacks [www document]. URL
http://www.casinos-gambling.com/legal/