Safe bet this is a dumb law
Legislation to ban ads on Net wagering sites just a bid by Ontario to protect its monopoly
Oct. 20, 2006
DAVE PERKINS
TORONTO STAR
As usual, when it comes to gambling, our governments have it all wrong. In this case, Ontario is the latest to pull a dumb move, introducing legislation this week to ban advertising on Internet betting sites.
The only smart move - the only one - is to legalize all Internet gambling at the federal level, regulate it and tax it, the way they did in Great Britain. Anything short of that, including this stupid play by Ontario to protect its own faltering bookmaking industry, is a waste of time.
Let us all be clear on this: people are going to gamble and they're going to do it on the Internet. There are an estimated 180 worldwide websites running illegal gambling operations now out of a Quebec Indian reserve - politically sensitive land that happens to include the main hydro right-of-way from James Bay - and the federal government is pretending that none of it is happening. The feds simply won't go there - in more ways than one.
The McGuinty government, which introduced legislation this week to prevent Internet gambling companies from advertising in Ontario, merely seeks to protect its monopoly on sports betting, through such suckers' games as Pro-Line. You've seen those insultingly stupid "anything can happen'' TV commercials promoting sports betting: that's our government in action, fleecing the suckers.
Those games, some of which demand three-team parlays, pay off a fraction of what they should. Ontario coerced teenagers, among others, into betting on sports through these dumb things. Then along came the Internet, offering real sports betting: you want to bet on the Leafs or the Yankees or the Cowboys or whomever, you open an account, feed it with a credit card and then bet them. It's just like walking up to the windows in Las Vegas and laying down the cash. You win, you walk back to the windows and collect. You win on the Internet, your account swells. None of this parlay nonsense.
Everybody and his brother, who have grown up betting on sports at the corner store through Pro-Line, have discovered an Internet site by now; what's the sense of continuing to play dumb parlay games? No wonder revenues are tumbling by hundreds of millions of dollars.
This legislation is a shameful bid to halt that revenue decline and prop up the government's own sucker games.
The United States, in another misguided attempt at making everything about morality, decided to make Internet gambling illegal and some websites have responded by blocking U.S. customers. This is typical of the U.S. It was 86 years ago next week that the Volstead Act was introduced, because some bluenoses decided people would stop drinking alcohol. They wouldn't and didn't and organized crime became enormous because a misguided government introduced Prohibition and tried to ban something that people want.
Same thing here. People won't stop betting on sports - particularly having been exposed to it for two decades now by our leading bookmaker, the government.
If they were regulated and taxed - and Britain amassed £1.8 billion in a little over the first year of legal operation - operators would scramble to be legal. That way they could advertise, pay taxes and regulatory fees, etc. Smart customers would cease betting with unlicensed, offshore operators who occasionally fall into the ocean rather than paying off; what would be the point of taking the chance?
The horse racing industry, namely the Woodbine Entertainment Group, supports the legislation only because Woodbine can't support the status quo; racing is losing hundreds of millions of dollars by being caught in the middle.
"Our country does not enforce the laws on the books and we cannot compete,'' David Willmot, CEO of the Woodbine Entertainment Group, rhapsodized yesterday before the draw for the Pattison Canadian International this Sunday out at Woodbine.
"Either this law is enforced or it's a bad law and should be changed.''
It's a bad law, all right. Now here comes another one.
************************
Courtesy of Clevfan.
Legislation to ban ads on Net wagering sites just a bid by Ontario to protect its monopoly
Oct. 20, 2006
DAVE PERKINS
TORONTO STAR
As usual, when it comes to gambling, our governments have it all wrong. In this case, Ontario is the latest to pull a dumb move, introducing legislation this week to ban advertising on Internet betting sites.
The only smart move - the only one - is to legalize all Internet gambling at the federal level, regulate it and tax it, the way they did in Great Britain. Anything short of that, including this stupid play by Ontario to protect its own faltering bookmaking industry, is a waste of time.
Let us all be clear on this: people are going to gamble and they're going to do it on the Internet. There are an estimated 180 worldwide websites running illegal gambling operations now out of a Quebec Indian reserve - politically sensitive land that happens to include the main hydro right-of-way from James Bay - and the federal government is pretending that none of it is happening. The feds simply won't go there - in more ways than one.
The McGuinty government, which introduced legislation this week to prevent Internet gambling companies from advertising in Ontario, merely seeks to protect its monopoly on sports betting, through such suckers' games as Pro-Line. You've seen those insultingly stupid "anything can happen'' TV commercials promoting sports betting: that's our government in action, fleecing the suckers.
Those games, some of which demand three-team parlays, pay off a fraction of what they should. Ontario coerced teenagers, among others, into betting on sports through these dumb things. Then along came the Internet, offering real sports betting: you want to bet on the Leafs or the Yankees or the Cowboys or whomever, you open an account, feed it with a credit card and then bet them. It's just like walking up to the windows in Las Vegas and laying down the cash. You win, you walk back to the windows and collect. You win on the Internet, your account swells. None of this parlay nonsense.
Everybody and his brother, who have grown up betting on sports at the corner store through Pro-Line, have discovered an Internet site by now; what's the sense of continuing to play dumb parlay games? No wonder revenues are tumbling by hundreds of millions of dollars.
This legislation is a shameful bid to halt that revenue decline and prop up the government's own sucker games.
The United States, in another misguided attempt at making everything about morality, decided to make Internet gambling illegal and some websites have responded by blocking U.S. customers. This is typical of the U.S. It was 86 years ago next week that the Volstead Act was introduced, because some bluenoses decided people would stop drinking alcohol. They wouldn't and didn't and organized crime became enormous because a misguided government introduced Prohibition and tried to ban something that people want.
Same thing here. People won't stop betting on sports - particularly having been exposed to it for two decades now by our leading bookmaker, the government.
If they were regulated and taxed - and Britain amassed £1.8 billion in a little over the first year of legal operation - operators would scramble to be legal. That way they could advertise, pay taxes and regulatory fees, etc. Smart customers would cease betting with unlicensed, offshore operators who occasionally fall into the ocean rather than paying off; what would be the point of taking the chance?
The horse racing industry, namely the Woodbine Entertainment Group, supports the legislation only because Woodbine can't support the status quo; racing is losing hundreds of millions of dollars by being caught in the middle.
"Our country does not enforce the laws on the books and we cannot compete,'' David Willmot, CEO of the Woodbine Entertainment Group, rhapsodized yesterday before the draw for the Pattison Canadian International this Sunday out at Woodbine.
"Either this law is enforced or it's a bad law and should be changed.''
It's a bad law, all right. Now here comes another one.
************************
Courtesy of Clevfan.
