By Samantha Williams

Today, online gambling is on its peak point and proving very harmful to most of the families as children log on without their parents permission and losses thousands dollars without any safeguards or protections. Online gamblers have targeted young kids and their population is thrice the gambling problems in the adults. Online gaming industries are rising day by day. Today there are more then 2000 in number and none of them have any security measures to prevent kids from participating.

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer said “These online gambling sites are really hit the jackpot by targeting kids”. Even a 5 or 6 years child know how to surf internet and this in turn have its many ill-effects also. In addition to the work given by their parents or school homework they are frequently using net for playing games like poker, blackjack, etc.

Online gambling is a very vast business and it has spread it roots in very few years. Internet gambling pulled in $5.2 billion in 2003, up from $4 billion in 2002 and up from $1.1 billion in 1999, showing nearly 400% growths in four years. The problem with gambling sites are they can’t look at their customers to know their age or photograph in order to identify them like the way it is done in traditional casinos. The youngsters involved in this online gambling game are nearly 1 million in number and are mostly of the age group 14-22 years.

The highest of the users are the college going students. According to a survey, gambling is most famous among students whether they play it for fun or any serious betting purpose. The money which the college students earn by doing hard work is used to gamble in pools, casinos, poker and sports.

A great demand of some necessary step to be taken is required. As, unless we take any useful step to prevent the spreading of this gambling problem among the youth this problem will keen on rising and will never decline and a day will arise when more and more of the generation will be returning home from the college not holding their degree in hand but they will be holding the receipts of their outstanding debts which are yet to be cleared.

Many useful steps are taken like many sites have safeguards which restrict kids from logging on to their sites and playing. The FTC reports that about 20% of online gambling sites contain warnings about minors.

Parents also need to take care of their children and have a watch on them about what they are doing and how they are using internet facilities.

We can’t blame totally the gambling sites for this problem as kids find the banners and ads related to casinos on mostly every site and they get fascinated by the attractive offers and ads, in result they go for the gambling. They start with it as a hobby and soon they get addicted to it which turns on into a very big problem.

Demand that online gambling sites not accept credit card payments from minors and verify identity and age information against available databases of government-issued identification and age information. Sites would be able to warn both parents and children about the risks of gambling online. Universities can block access to certain types of websites by blocking it from their IP address. Push online gambling sites to include warnings on the dangers of gambling addiction and links to help-sites such as Gamblers anonymous.