What Is Making American
Firms Invest In Online Gambling?
The above question that is
‘what is making American firms invest in online
gambling?’ is very vital. Online gambling has rocked the
lives of a large number of citizens and that too in a
very big way. Not only adults but also the youth and
adolescents are indulging in internet gambling, gambling
from workplace have become common problems. Through
computers and lap tops, people are gambling from their
office and from their homes. While the attraction of
winning easy money pulls the crowd of people towards
online gambling, in this article we discuss about what
exactly is attracting the firms in starting these online
casinos.
Investment in online Gambling -
Though internet casinos are outlaw operations in the
eyes of the federal government, they look like solid
investments to a large number of Wall Street firms.
Blue-chip investment houses like Goldman Sachs, Merrill
Lynch and Fidelity are known to hold hundreds of
millions of dollars in shares of online casinos and
betting parlors that are publicly traded on the London
Stock Exchange and headquartered in places like Costa
Rica or Gibraltar. The growing participation by American
investors shows a striking gap between the federal
law-enforcement position on online gambling and the
actual realities behind what has emerged as a booming
business. Internet gambling analysts and company
executives say that the investments highlight how widely
the federal policy is being ignored. Millions of
Americans use the Internet for playing games like poker,
blackjack and roulette, or to place wagers on sporting
events. Online casinos advertise in magazines and on
cable television while filling big billboards in Times
Square and other places where crowds come.
The Legal View -
The increasing participation of firms in online gambling
highlights the difficulty of policing cross-border
activity in the Internet age at the same time that
electronic commerce and a global economy have lead to
creation of fast economic partners across national
boundaries. Legal experts are divided over whether
American investors and the
investment houses that
operate mutual funds could be seen as criminally liable
for their actions by providing financial backing to
these offshore casinos. It is not uncommon for Americans
to invest in overseas companies whose operations may be
considered as illegal or unacceptable here, from
sweatshop manufacturers to European energy producers
that do business in Iran. The difference with Internet gambling is
that this activity takes place on domestic shores - with
the Americans placing bets online with the use of their
home computers - and the Justice Department has stated
clearly that the operators here are violating American
law. The investing of the firms in spite of the legal
barriers shows that the gains from the profit are much
more lucrative than the legal risks that are involved.
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