Online Gambling

Online gambling makes it too easy for too many to risk too much.

With all gambling, the vast majority of those who bet will lose. This is a fact. It is their losses that pay for the winnings of the very few fortunate winners and provide the enormous profits seen by the sharks that structure these mine fields. And if you have ever seen Las Vegas, you have witnessed some of the worlds most spectacular architecture and an extravagance that is unparalleled. You have seen the products of the billions of dollars spent by the casinos in a city that without them would be a ghost town. But what you didn't see were the millions of gamblers who lose those billions of dollars there every year.

And with online gambling, the threat of losing it all is even greater than for those who bet at casinos. In fact, there are online gamblers losing everything as you read this. Many will be losing everything even as you sleep. And even more will be losing everything, everyday, as long as online gambling exists. Here is why.

90% of online gamblers use credit cards, exclusively, to finance their betting. This means they are spending money they don't have. Credit cards allow gamblers to spend up to $5,000, $10,000, or even $100,000. And some credit cards reserved for the affluent have no spending limit at all. Even those with great wealth can lose everything.

You might be saying, "Just because people have credit doesn't mean they will continue to bet until they reach their credit limit." Well, the problem is that for too many, gambling is an addiction. There are those who bet more than they can afford to lose and then lose. They then feel a need to dig their way out of the hole they now find themselves in. And in order to accomplish this, they must bet again, and then usually lose again, and then dig again. The amount of cash they have available determines how much they can risk. But with credit cards, they can throw away thousands of dollars in a vicious cycle that too easily spirals out of control. And by the time they run out of credit, the hole dug is so deep, desperation is but an understatement for their sense of their own plight.

And for online gamblers, losing everything means losing a lot more than just money. It means losing one's credit when the bills can't be paid. It means losing one's house when the mortgage can't be met. It means losing one's family when the gambling addiction steals the security and trust that held it together. It can mean losing one's freedom by ending up in prison for trying to steal the money needed to try to win back what was lost. It can even mean losing one's life when, looking up from the bottom of a self-dug hell, a man or a woman feels so removed from the rest of the world that he or she can no longer find a way out or even a reason to live.

So yes, it is true. Online gambling just makes it too easy for too many to lose too much.