Sunday, March 04, 2007

Once you leave the U.S. the situation becomes rather clear and quite
depressing. The rest of the world is full of potential and opportunity when
it comes to online gambling. New choices and options merely await
implementation in this business which seemingly changes every six months.
The U.S. once held all the cards in this market, but has been forced to
fold. So it goes for Americans caught up in the high-stakes game we call the
online gambling industry. Spending time in Macau, the new king of gambling,
made me almost too depressed to think about the future. The American
government has succeeded in scaring away the majority of the industry from
even contemplating a future which includes us. Everyone knows online
gambling won't completely turn its back on Americans, but we won't be at the
forefront. The newest and best options will pass us by. The newest
wrinkles and twists on betting will only come to us second-hand. Worst of
all, the endless opportunities for jobs and taxes will instead go to people
in Malta, the Philippines, or any of a number of countries embracing the
industry. America is so fat and rich it turns its back on high-paying jobs
in a quickly growing technology sector. Other countries are fighting to
create loopholes and tax breaks that send out a red carpet for this nascent
industry which merely serves burgeoning demand. Even China, not exactly a
beacon of freedom of choice, grudgingly accepts they must allow some online
gambling or face it being an essentially uncontrolled industry. American
policy makers and law enforcement somehow believe they can do what even
tightly controlled China cannot. People will gamble and won't accept
theoretical limits on how they can do it. While its clear the wish to keep
these activities an American endeavor on U.S. soil drives these misguided
efforts, the rest of the world is going in a completely opposite direction.
Many influential companies have just throw their hands in the air and stated
they will just serve the willing and leave Americans to their folly. Sadly
we must accept the fact that while most of us crave the biggest and best
action, it won't be seen on our shores first. Just a year ago only a fool
in this industry would have thought anything of a business plan where the
best ideas and investments ignored the American market. Asia still has
virtually no legal online gambling and many European countries are saturated
in it.

So thank Congress and Bill Frist for sending us all into a state of
pointless decay. Yes slightly fewer people might gamble online, but how do
we as a society win from this? Money not wagered online still tends to
find a way into action. The gambling activities are rarely subverted in
whole. Besides last time I checked Americans are not lacking in frivolous
or downright dumb ways to spend their money.

Many of these ways to spend money increasingly support lower paid service
jobs and areas with little American value added. Shopping to your heart's
content and buying made in China products does a lot less good than products
designed by Americans, sold by Americans, and taxed by Americans Instead
some young Filipino will double his earnings opportunity just because he
speaks English, while some potential American sportsbook employee will have
to continue to compete against an outsourced Indian or Chinese resource.

Even worse Americans are in the vanguard of these efforts and could be
selling ideas and taking countless bets from foreign lands. You would think
lawmakers would realize attempting to stop unstoppable forces only means
wasted opportunities. Maybe instead of listening to religious groups tell
them what harm online betting does to society, our lawmakers should take a
tour of an international book to see there really are winners when this
industry operates within reasonable guidelines.