| 8. |
Prevention This approach could be justified on the grounds that there is a
long standing social policy objective to prevent the proliferation of hard
gambling in the home, particularly where it involves credit. Suggested
methods include (a) placing the onus on Internet service providers to block
access to offshore gaming sites and (b) because credit cards are commonly
used for Internet gambling payments, asking the banks to refuse to recognize
such sites for payment purposes. But there seem to be major practical and
jurisdictional difficulties with prevention. For instance, offending sites have
to be identified before they can be blocked and the number and flexibility of
such sites may make this almost impossible. The notion of making gambling
by persons in their own home illegal is not attractive and may not be
enforceable. On the other hand, if such gambling remains legal, it is difficult,
if not impossible, to expect service providers to block activities which are not
outlawed either in the operator's or the gambler's countries. Equally, it would
be difficult to expect the banks to control or limit credit card use in respect of
transactions which are, in all other respects, entirely legitimate.
|
| 9. |
Legislate to permit, regulate and tax This route too is not without its
difficulties and would raise issues about proliferation and consequential
increases in problem gambling. Already it has been suggested that the
Internet attracts a high proportion of people with addictive tendencies and
that the combination of the Internet and gambling is potentially explosive.
But, the advantages of such legislation are that it would allow any safeguards
(such as a bar on credit and limits on losses, measures being considered in
some countries) believed to be necessary and would protect the
Government's gambling revenues. The option does however give rise to a set
of consequential issues such as: >>
|