So it begins– the battle to impose and maintain some degree of control over online betting, in all its many forms.
From a recent article in The Guardian:
US gambling addiction is ‘out of control’ as betting markets boom, policy expert warns
“The gambling crisis ‘demands a public health response’ and should be regulated like alcohol or tobacco, expert says.”
To which I say: Well, duh.
The fact is, simply relocating a common human and societal problem online is only going to expand its scope, and the number of difficulties it will inevitably create.
So why do that? Well, it’s usually as a result of political and social pressure from powerful interests. And the motivation behind that pressure is the desire for profit.
Once gambling is in place, legally speaking, the real question becomes how best to regulate it, in order to minimize the harmful consequences that follow. The people who are assigned the task of imposing regulation know in advance that they’re going to run into stiff resistance.
That can’t be helped.
For instance, as The Guardian notes, a major concern has been the advent of online prediction markets.
“Prediction market platforms,” the writer observes, “contend that they are not gambling platforms, but rather financial trading platforms. Critics argue they are gambling under another name.”
Why the debate? Because by avoiding the label of gambling , the purveyors of prediction betting have been able to access another large potential market for their offerings: People under 21.
Something that’s strictly prohibited in most states.
Instead, prediction markets fall under the auspices of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC— rather than a state’s gaming authority.
That leaves the prediction market people in position to advertise and sell their products– mostly, the opportunity to bet on thousands of different unrelated activities — to vulnerable 18, 19, and 20 year olds.
And presumably, to get even richer.
It’s pretty clear to most observers that this needs to change. But will it?
