Internet Gambling

Question 1

What year and company were the first to do online stock market trading?

Answer 1

E*Trade in 1983

Question 2

Why didnt more companies do internet trading when E Trade did?

Answer 2

Internet wasnt widespread enough.
Charles Schwab started in 1996

200 different sites by the end of 1997

Question 3

What year and who first did an online purchase of lottery tickets?

Answer 3

Liechtenstein in oct 1995

Question 4

What year did internet gambling begin its rapid expansion?

Answer 4

1998
650 sites by end of 1999
1800 sites by end of 2002
2500 sites by end of 2006
*2870 sites by Jan 2013

Question 5

What is iTV? When did it launch? Where did it become most popular?

Answer 5

TV on demand. Expanded into shopping, banking, music selection, video games, and GAMBLING
TVG 1999 in U.S. (horse race betting)
Primary penetration on Europe

Question 6

How many internet gambling sites are their now? Why is there so many?

Answer 6

2870 sites running currently.

So many sites because owners create multiple sites to have a larger online presence.

Question 7

What are the most popular forms of online gambling, according to the number of sites?

Answer 7

1. Casinos
2. Poker Rooms
3. Sports/race books
4. Bingo
5. Lottery
   * others include betting exchange, backgammon, Mahjong & Rummy, then Financial

Question 8

What are skill game sites? give one example?

How do people make money?

Answer 8

• skill game sites offer a wide range of skill-oriented word games, puzzle games, and strategy games, sports games, card games, arcade games, trivia games, and video games. ex) Mahjong, Chess, billiards, mini golf, Solitare, carnival shootout.
• People make money by entering tournaments, paying a fee, and the majority of the fee going to the winner. the site takes a cut. part of this expansion of skill game sites is rooted in the belief that these sites don’t violate gambling prohibitions in jurisdictions that define gambling as games of chance.

Question 9

What are the most popular ways to pay for online gambling? other ways?

Answer 9

Visa and MasterCard most popular, and accepted by 90% of sites (not from U.S. Players)
- other popular methods: Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller, Moneybookers, or even personal cheque.

Question 10

Why cant US players use their credit cards to buy online casino chips? What has this led to in terms of new business?

Answer 10

Online casinos have been assigned an “online gambling” merchant code by Visa and MasterCard. This electronic code is attached to every credit card transaction the company makes. Most U.S. banks and financial institutions automatically reject all transactions with this code, so U.S. players are generally unable to use credit cards with online casinos to make deposits. This limitation is partly responsible for the appearance of so many new non-credit card, non-U.S. based, financial intermediaries in recent years

Question 11

How much was spent on internet gambling in 2012?
Which types of gambling saw most of it?
How much is this in terms of worldwide gambling market?

Answer 11

• 35 Billion in 2012
• Sports/race books, casinos and power accounting for large marjoity
• 9% of worldwide gambling market

Question 12

What is happening with internet gambling now? (mkt share, penetration, comparison to land based gambling)

Answer 12

• Revenue and Market Share continue to increase
• Still has relatively low penetration after 17 years (when compared to regular gambling) dispite its convience and offering better odds
• Not much evidence of negative impact to land-based gambling
• internet gambling may end up filling a small market niche rather than replacing or supplementing land-based forms.

Question 13

What countries most prevalent for internet gambling?

Answer 13

• 14% in the UK
• 12% in Sweden in 2011
• 7% in Norway in 2006
• 3% in Northern Ireland in 2010
• 2% in US in 2007
• 2% in Canada in 2007

Question 14

Which countries are internet gambling totally illegal?

Answer 14

Bermuda
Cambodia
China
Cuba
Germany
Greece
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
Romania
Russia
South Africa
Ukraine
Most Muslim Countries

Question 15

Which countries are all forms of online gambling legal?

Answer 15

Antigua
Austria
Gibraltar
Liechtenstein
Netherland Antilles
Panama
Phillipines
Slovakia
U.K

Question 16

Which countries are some forms legal?

Answer 16

Canada
US
France
Finland
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
Australia
Sweden
Taiwan

Question 17

What are some concerns with internet gambling?

Do people have problems with online gambling sites?

Answer 17

• Unfair, Illegal, or Irresponsible Business Practices
• not paying player winnings
• unfair odds
• free-play sections with odds that favour the player
• 1/3 of online players report having had a dispute with an online casino or poker site

Question 18

More concerns with Internet Gambling?

Answer 18

Unfair or illegal player practices
- hacking sites to pay wins
- theft and fraud at skill game sites
- money laundering
- player collusion
- poker bots
Failure to verify legal age
Lack of available information on responsible gambling and problem gambling

Question 19

Do youth gamble online?

Answer 19

• 50% of N.A. High School and college/university students have played on free play online gambling sites
• 2%-9% of N.A. youth report having gambled online for money.

Question 20

What are some problems with internet gambling?

Answer 20

Nature of Internet Gambling makes it conductive to producing Problem Gambling

• 24 hour immediate access
• solitary play
• immersive interface
• “electronic cash”
• ability to play under influence of drugs or alcohol

Question 21

Which is worse for problem gambling, land-based or internet? by how much?

Answer 21

In genera, evidence suggests the prevalence of problem gambling is 3 to 4 times higher in internet gamblers

Question 22

What are 3 approaches to prohibiting Internet Gambling?

Answer 22

1. Laws prohibiting consumer involvement (weak)
2. Laws prohibiting gambling-related financial transactions (eg. Norway, South Africa, U.S.) (weak)
3. Requiring ISPs to block online gambling sites (strong)
   - via censorship on all internet sites: China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea
   - or just online gambling: Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Slovenia

Question 23

What are some pros to internet gambling?

Answer 23

• difficult to prohibit, bad to have laws that are widely disregarded
• domestic sites under govt regulartory control would ensure fair games and better player protection
• internet gambling is a format that makes it easier for consumers to implement limits to how much or how often they gamble
• regulatory control would accrue economic benefits that are currently leaving the jurisdiction
• government shouldn’t regulate peoples leisure behavior or how they spend their money
• less regressive than other forms of gambling

Question 24

Cons to internet gambling?

Answer 24

• general disregard for rule of law is a risk when prohibiting something most people engage in ( eg. alcohol, 70%) not something 1-14% of people engage in
• will always be large number of sites with unsatisfactory business practices
• online stock market trading has not been beneficial
• nature of online gambling makes it inherently more problematic
• legalization will increase rates of problem gambling
• significant percent of online gambling revenue comes from problem gamblers (27 % internationally)
• legalizing online gambling and redirecting money into treatment does not offset the harm caused.

Question 25

Which country has the most liberal internet gambling laws? whats the result of that?>

Answer 25

The UK
also has highest rate of internet gambling
meaning more people develop problems with it
Economically disadvantageous.

Question 26

What is a good intermediate solutions between prohibition and legalization for internet gambling?

Answer 26

less problematic forms could be legalized
access to foreign sites could be prohibited through ISP blocking
The best policy approach depends on a jurisdictions situation