EU tells the US to allow online gambling

I look around at the current financial crisis and see many "smart" people saying that a large contributor to the issue was poor debt management by "punters". Internet gambling is an additional vainity the economy doesn't need right now. Maybe after the recovery we can use IG as a method to bring about another collapse.

This article = troll.

I like it!

I totally agree with Dave. We are part of a capitalistic society, for bettor or worse, and the last thing the world needs now is more financial stupidity.

I am NOT for 'redistribution of wealth' but I am also not for 'concentration of wealth to the upper class'. That's all gambling does.

Gambling is a disease AND an addiction. I have seen it ruin families even when they have to actually leave the home to do it. I can only imagine the nest eggs disappearing entirely after some three day on-line gambling marathon.

It's all about taxes and making money for the government. Gambling is legal in plenty of places in the US, there are even State-run lotteries. But it's hard to tax online gambling.

Wanna bet?

So is alcoholism, smoking, obesity, heart disease, diabeties and nymphomania but the government doesn't stop you drinking, smoking, eating McD's, eating Cheesy Puffs or having sex (although in some cases they should make an exception).

For the record gambling is pefectly legal in the UK but we aren't all pennyless gambling addicts because we aren't all idiots. If you can't be trusted not to gamble your life away, why do you trust each other to buy a 45 and not shoot each other in the face?

Answer: Values. We just have different values.

Article goes far to point out one thing: How much political pull operations like PartyGaming and Sportingbet have.

They try to do the same in Holland too.
Why, the Dutch government is owner of Holland Casino and doesn't want people to gamble without them taking the profits.
In my opinion it should be open to everybody, however controlled on fair-play, as a lot of sites are in the hands of crooks.
Protect people, but do not tell them what they can and can't do...slight difference.
Also with Grass, if people want to smoke it, LET THEM! But protect them from bad-quality.
Most countries, USA upfront are stupid on such matters....jailing people over some Grass or Gambling...STUPID!

@Mike,

Values?
It has to do with FREEDOM!
Let people do their thing.
Government should only protect people from Crooks and Fake stuff.

As soon as you talk values you are taking away FREEDOM, as your value limits mine!
As long as people don't hurt others, let them be!
If you are worried about taxes, well give them Gambling and tax it.
How hard can this be?
If people want to goto Hookers and females want to make money with it, who are you to forbid it?
It should only be forbidden is/when people are forced to do it.
Like all computers are FORCED being sold with WINDOWS! M$-Crooks but they are left alone....values???? Strange values.

re: "a disease AND an addiction"
-------

why not add "shopaholics" to the list of corp-govt fascist rules and regs of proper behavior approved by the state. unless and until big brother's keeper's particular freedom is banished it's "for the good of the whole."

This is all propaganda anyhow. There is no author. AP can go burn in hell.

Seriously guys, You are all dumbassess if you think online gambling is legitimate at all.

"The European Union urged the United States on Wednesday to open talks on scrapping a ban on foreign online gambling companies, saying it breaks global trade rules."

Uh yea. Right. We will get right on screwing honest people out of their money.

The fact that gambling continues in an enlightened age boggles my mind. Mathematically speaking, it doesn't make sense to gamble at all. There was a card magician book I glossed over once and it was worth the read.

A gambler doesn't gamble, he wins. So essentially the house has to cheat to win.

Gambling and lack of moral fiber is what is wrong these days and it will come back to bite you in the ass eventually.

I remember back in 2000, when just a handful of states were banning online gambling, they were all states with their own legalized gambling. My own state of Illinois had banned it, as well as Louisiana and Nevada. I can't remember who else had, but it was pretty obvious that these states had other gambling interests of their own. You cannot easily tax gambling that occurs outside of your borders.

I don't understand the "puritan roots" comment, since almost every state has state-run lotteries and several have legalized gambling (ever heard of Las Vegas? Atlantic City?).

The law was created for several reasons:

1) Protect "land"-based gambling institutions (aka Casinos)

2) Protect tax revenues (taxes placed on Casinos)

3) Protect customers. Things like payout rates are legislated for things like slot machines.

All of those are completely avoided by online gambling sites, particularly the customer protections.

Besides, it's not that the US targets foreign companies; they target ALL online gambling.

To say that the US can't restrict online gambling because it impacts foreign countries/companies would mean we couldn't pass laws restricting ANY international business transaction; which is ridiculous.

So can the EU ban the US from flooding the internet with monster members porking amateur top heavy teens in every orifice if we feel it is all a bit immoral? What's that? ... first ammendment you say... bummer!

I guess if it's not about morality then perhaps it might just be good old fashioned protectionism.

Must juan become a Master Mason in order to travel foreign lands and receive wages?

Pls excuse my outbursts. I really should be concentrating on following in The Path of Peggy Seu. My Peggy-Seu-eu-eu-eu. Oh ho, Peggy.

Gambling is for fools
We is the US try to limit what fools do
If you dont like it, cut the phone and internet cables
You stay on your side of the pond, and we will stay on our side Gambling serves no one but the fool

ted27601, I've been to Las Vegas. It is a city in the U.S. which is full of "fools" gambling 24 hours a day, and alcohol is served for free. I can't see how internet gambling is that much worse. The internet gambling ban is about protecting American Casinos, not American gamblers.

Also, gambling isn't that foolish. You won't come out ahead, but if you stick to games with good odds, you can gamble and lose only $10-20 an hour. That may be a little expensive for entertainment, but I don't think it is outrageous.

@ Mike

It's not 'about taxes', that's ridiculous, the tax revenue from online gambling is tiny and not worth the Bush Administration's time.

Voter support for populist idealism is something they would go after.

the real issue at stake has nothing to do with gambling but moreover the use of it, particularly internet based gambling, by organised crime for the laundering of funds.

The money in casinos is monitored and managed very, very, tightly (as it is in other businesses that offer tidy fronts for this purpose). The real reason they don't want this is that it provides and obscenely simple means of laundering large amounts of cash very quickly.

Although I agree with several others that it makes it too easy for some to lose it all.

Would a lack of moral fibre cause a mental block?

yup... getting me coat

How does the political process behind this work? I dont see how the democratic majority of the EU benefit from online gambling when it adds no value and merely rearranges capital while taking a fairly large slice of the pot home to their "shareholders".

Is this due to lobbying of the governmental apparatus of the EU by wealthy commercial parties? Is that really democratic representation? Would these parties have anything to do with the USA by any chance? Camelot for example, am I right in thinking that is run by GTECH? Isnt that a US company with extensive involvement in EU lotteries and online gambling?

If so, are we seeing the interesting spectacle of US companies subverting an EU institution to act undemocratically for purposes of changing their homeland government policy for their own benefit?

Would that be merely ironic or could it be corrupt?

It's not just overseas Internet gaming sites that are blocked; domestic Internet gaming sites are prohibited from setting up altogether. If there were US-based Internet gambling sites, the EU would have a point. Howerver, there aren't any such sites (they are specifically prohibited by the Wire Act), despite the premier Internet gaming-operations business (WagerWorks) being US-owned (WagerWorks is a subsidiary of IGT). That prohibition exists for three reasons:

1. Fraud protection.
2. Tax-revenue protection.
3. Regulatory simplicity (amazingly enough, for the casino operator).

As loing as US-based Internet-gaming sites are prohibited, the EU's case has no merit.

I strongly disagree that it's about puritan roots. Almost every state of the union has at least one Native American tribe running a casino. The state of Nevada obviously has had legallized gambling casinos for at least a century or more. So obviously the United States isn't stuck in some "puritan roots" hole when it comes to online gambling. To me, it's due to:

1) Tas revenue. It's most likely too difficult to tax an offshore online casino.

2) Fraud protection. I figure many if most online casinos aren't exactly the most trustworthy sites, either with regards to gambling payoffs OR their website itself. I have never visited one but I'd be too afraid of something like a trojan being placed on my PC if I were to visit an online casino.

Now, I suppose that one could argue if the restrictions were removed that item 2 wouldn't be an issue, but I seriously doubt it. Even when legal gambling attracts crime and vice. Even if it was perfectly legal to run an online casino in the USA, and perfectly legal to go to an online site that was hosted somewhere else, I'd still be very wary of going to such.

Or to put it another way, anything that spams about as much as porn sites and other questionable sites, legal or otherwise I don't exactly trust.

Remember that in the UK, Australia and other countries gambling is perfectly legal. Most of the organisations that run online casinos or online gambling are large respectable, publicly listed and regulated companies (like Ladbrokes, Corel, William Hill etc). It's not all run by the mafia like it was/is in Vegas. Sure there may be some dodgy ones around, but I don't think your at any more risk than if you were buying goods online.

As with buying goods, you stick with the names you know, and accept the risk.

Here's a deal. The US can open itself to EU-based internet gambling...for the sake of world peace, free trade, and all that jazz. In exchange, the EU needs to bar its member states from the massive gov't subsidies of industrial products. For example, France can't sink billions into Airbus in an effort to compete with Boeing. What? Not willing to do that? But I thought we were all for free trade, open markets, etc.?

Folks, this is about taxes, and, in a sense, about security. It makes no sense for European economies to benefit from American wealth with no corresponding investment in the American economy (and vice versa). If a European company wants to build a casino in the US, go for it; you're welcome to, and many already have. And, from the perspective of security, it is just plan silly for the US government to allow American wealth to bleed out of the country. To do so would materially weaken the US economy, putting it at a disadvantage compared to other states.

A country should, and, in this case, does, work to increase its relative power in the international system, so long as those actions are consistent with moral and legal principles. --If that is protectism, then we're all guilty.

I have to say I'm with Nick on this one.

The USA is notoriously inflexible when it comes to framing things as 'moral' issues to the point where their attempts to control their citizen's behavior starts to look pathetic.

Having lived here for some time, I can honestly say that if you want to have a little fun beyond the bland, sanitized ideal of going out to the movies or watching a baseball game (if the latter could be considered entertainment at all) - this is the wrong country to be in.

It's becoming sadly apparent in most of the media that comes out of the states these days. Movies and music are steadily more processed, recycled ideas since the content producers have no interest in catering to the qualms and possibly self-destructive natures of genuinely creative people - instead preferring to go for the sure bet and trying to program the public into buying their tripe.

European locations boast far more vibrant examples of creative scenes, nightlife and culture. The US seems intent on destroying itself in this regard.