Online Casinos

Essay by deazn1 November 2006

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Online gambling should be made completely illegal or be more rigidly controlled because it promotes addiction, presents great potential for criminal abuse, and has become a growing problem on college campuses.

Compulsive gambling is a serious addiction that affects many people. While it may seem abrasive to consider it a serious disease, one must realize that the consequences of compulsive gambling can dwarf that of any other addiction. People have been known to lose their entire life's savings. Financial ruin is only one of serious events that ruin a gambling addict's life. The gambling addiction affects them at work. It seems to never leave their minds. In many cases, gamblers begin to integrate gambling into their daily office lives. They organize office pools or sports pools during their free hours, and bet on anything that has winning or losing situations. Arranging card games for money is also a common practice for gamblers during short breaks.

The effect that all this has on the pathological gambler's work is clear and logical. He or she may have difficulty concentrating and finishing projects, and regularly misuse time in order to gamble. Serious crimes may arise, which include embezzlement, employee theft, or other illegal activities, and may leave the person jobless and possibly jailed. For these people, once they start they cannot stop, and, like any other addiction, they build up a tolerance and experience symptoms of withdrawal when trying to abstain from gambling. With the option of online gambling, compulsive gamblers can easily gamble at home and are even more unlikely to control their obsession. While lives are destroyed due to the addictive effects of gambling, they also can be destroyed by online criminals.

Online gambling presents a great potential for criminal abuse. Internet scammers lurking about for people's financial information have...