Online Gambling: Virtual Realities and Absolute Truths

The gambling industry has forever been the target of negative backlash, and sure enough online gambling has received just as much flak. The fact of the matter is that online gambling is a completely legitimate business enterprise, but this hasn't stopped critics and moralists from making all sorts of erroneous accusations and claims to the contrary.

One of the more common misconceptions is that it is very easy for children to gamble online. The truth is that most online casinos have rigorous verification procedures that effectively restrict juveniles from entering their sites. While there has yet to be a truly fail-safe way to prevent minors from accessing internet gambling sites, the existing methods that have been set up are stringent enough to deal with such matters.

Another concern is that it is easy to commit and fall prey to fraud in online gambling. There is an existing set of laws and policies that most online gambling sites must strictly adhere to in order to ensure the protection of their customers and to keep their systems free from any acts of fraud and instances of cheating. Such security measures are put up not only for the players' benefit, but also to maintain the credibility and reliability of the site itself.

One more frequent accusation is that online gambling sites promote gambling addiction. While these sites do seek to entice would-be online gamblers into partaking of the gaming services that they offer, it is just too cynical to assume that they would deliberately encourage and exploit a weakness for vice for their own personal benefit. Abusive gamblers have a tendency to overplay and ultimately drive themselves out of gambling pretty quickly. Online casinos would rather attract regular patrons who play responsibly and would stick with them for a lengthy duration.

But even though online gambling sites do not intentionally endorse gambling abuse, there is the belief that habitual online gambling nonetheless causes such addictive behavior. In this case, though, the responsibility lies completely within the players themselves to be aware if they do indeed have a gambling problem and to be able to take up the fortitude to restrict them. As for the concern that gambling addiction stems from online gambling being basically a solitary activity, the interactivity of online casinos provide a player with plenty of opportunity to communicate with fellow gamblers.

The many problems that surround online gambling are basically the same ones that have been thrown at gambling in general since time immemorial. Even as the accusations persist, the truth is that the online gambling industry has always made an effort to remedy some of the very same ills they continue to be blamed for.