Last week the London Free Press shared findings on online gambling by June Cotte, an Associate Professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Cotte interviewed regular gamblers at casinos, and people who gambled online, and found that the online gamblers were far more frequent and agressive in their playing, and were usually less aware of how much they had lost or how long they had played.

Since most online gambling companies are located offshore, they deliberately evade Canadian or North American laws.

As a result, Cotte came out with a recommendation to legalize online gambling, and then regulate it,

You could require the North American online casinos to have things like cooling off periods, where if you run out of money you don’t instantaneously hit a button and upload some more. In a casino, if you run out of cash, you at least have to walk to an ATM.

I found her suggestion interesting, so I asked around to see what others thought in various industries around the world.

Other Jurisdictions

Fiona Mackenzie, a marketing strategist with the Undercover Strategist in Australia reminded me that in her jurisdiction it already is legal.

Mark Zieg, a software engineer who blogs at London Crackers said,

It already is legal. It’s called the stock market…
the government is itself the largest proponent of gambling in most [U.S.] states, through their public-minded “lotteries” (read: extra tax on folks what can’t do math).

Gary Pearson, V.P. Advanced Programs at Adacel Systems Inc. said,

I don’t have any justifiable argument for whether it should be legal or not but what does not make sense is the contradiction of gambling rules, particularly in the US. I live in Florida and can take a 20 minute drive and be sitting in a casino gambling with all I have. I still do not understand the given arguments for the recent banning in teh US of on-line gambling activities. It clearly cannot be a moral issue or gambling should be banned outright…
The government should not be policing how I spend my hard earned money.

William Downey, Managing Director at W J Downey & Associates and graduate (cum laude) from the Saint Georges School of Law (1996), said,

In Antigua v United States, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said the United States could restrict online gambling on sporting events, but could not prohibit offshore companies from offering online betting on horse racing. The reasoning was that there were inconsistencies in the U S gambling laws, which vary widely from state to state, with some states allowing online betting for horse races.
The WTO cited existing language in trade law giving a country an exception from open trade policies when prohibitions are necessary to protect “public morals.”
One of the most common arguements against online gambling is the lack of age controls.
Legal online gaming could produce hundreds of millions in tax revenue and create new jobs in the infomation technology industry… according to Sebastian Sinclair, an analyst with Christiansen Capital Advisors.

Against

Mohammed Hussain Kalsekar a SEM Manager at Communicate2 in India was brief, and to the point,

Why? To create more chaos?
To create more differences?

In Support

Rich Aubuchon, President of Ambition Solutions in Kansas City, Missouri, said,

Yes, especially for games of skill such as poker and backgammon, but generally speaking as well- the government shouldn’t be in the business of telling adults where they can and can’t spend their money.

If an activity is legal off line, it should be legal online.

A Lawyer Will Always say, It Depends

Lieven De Vleeschouwer, an ICT Administrator at Beyers Koffie in Belgium, said,

I’d say it all depends on which soil you are when connecting to the site.
although, starting a remote session to a pc that is on “legal” soil from your home ( that is on “illegal” soil) could be loophole to connect to a gambling site from your home.

the whole “Online” thing is no other world, just replace the word online with something trivial like “via mail” or “via telephone” and it becomes a lot easier…

“Is gambling via telephone legal?” everybody answers: chack the country or state law…. so, that’s why I suggest the “soil where to connect from” as best chance.

Keith Elis, a Financial Advisor with Financial Advisor at Wachovia Securities, LLC, and graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law (1998) said,

Without taking a position as to whether online gambling is a net benefit or net cost to society, it seems true that the indiscriminate nature of gambling restriction across the world is hindering the effective implementation of some very interesting, potentially useful ideas related to prediction markets.

Douglas Lattman, an engineer with GD-OTS said,

I can understand it being illegal from a perspective of stewardship, and promoting a healthy family environment. Is there a way to limit funds blown? For example, when one goes to a Rays Baseball game, one cannot purchase more than two beers at a time, nor can one purchase a beer after the seventh inning. In a similar way, there are some investments in the US, where the SEC limits the individuals who invest on the basis of being a “Qualified Investor”.

From the aspect of Freedom of Choice verses do I want to live in a Nanny State?
If the Government thinks I will not be a good steward and take personal responsibility of setting priorities to make sure I can provide for my own medical insurance, can I really be trusted to be a steward of knowing when to stop gambling?

From a legal aspect, what stops one from getting an ssh account on a server outside of the US; then setting up a ssh tunnel i.e. ssh -d 8080 foreignhost.com , then configure one’s browser to use socks and tunnel to outside the US. Isn’t that the same as flying to the Bahamas to play Poker? If I set up a tunnel, pass the packets through the tunnel; is this different than if I were to go physically to a different jurisdiction? Such tunnels can easily be done with Putty on a laptop PC. Would I be breaking the law if I implemented such a vehicle to gamble over the internet?

It seems from a technology standpoint, the laws to protect a gambling person are a bit moot. It might be more prudent for the Government to facility personal responsibility and consequences for actions; rather than try to be everyone’s nanny.