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Growing Concern for
Underage Poker Players?
Should it be any
surprise that the rate of problem teenage gamblers has risen since
last year? And just because this is the case, does it mean
that online gambling is out of control and should be made illegal?
Well, if you are like some American politicians who take statistics
reported by agencies like the Kentucky Council on Problem Gambling
and the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of
Pennsylvania, and use them as direct correspondences to the
negatives of online poker, then the answer is yes. However, if
you are of the growing mindset that sees the best way to prevent
problem gambling, especially amongst teenagers is to governmentally
regulate online gambling, the answer to the above questions is no.
I personally can't stand
it when these studies are released that show increases in underage
gamblers who have developed addictive tendencies - always alluding
to the diabolical nature of gambling in general. Rather than
embrace something for what it truly is - good and bad - and develop
a healthy awareness about it, it seems that those who want to govern
in the U.S. only want to build a huge wall of opposition that will
only help to strengthen the urge to experience gambling in the
online poker room, which is usually done at an even more extreme and
overcompensated level than it would if only the government had
imposed strict regulation guidelines.
The so-called online
poker craze does not seem to be declining at the rate that many were
predicting this year. The largest poker room in the industry,
Party Poker, reported over 2,000 new players signing up every day in
the fourth quarter this year alone. And with numbers like
that, you can bet there are a handful of young players in the mix.
Just look at the some of the big winners and top finishers in this
years high profile poker tournaments. It seems that at least
one out of ten are college students are recent grads who actually
paid their way through college by playing online poker. The
fact that they are of legal age to play in the poker room gives them
every right to be there.
Now, if a growing number
of fourteen year olds are starting to play online with their parents
credit card, I agree that something should be done. However,
do you actually think that if online gambling were made illegal, it
is going to stop those fourteen year olds from playing, who in
reality, already know they are doing something they should not be
doing to begin with?
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