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By Hilbert Haar
To say that gambling is part of the human DNA is probably correct. People gamble for different reasons and the most important one is, according to me: gamblers expect that chances they hit the jackpot are far greater than the chance that they will die tomorrow.
Archeologists discovered clay dice more than 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq. Back in those days, the dice were used for entertainment and for divination.
Interesting little fact: the word gamble stems from the Latin word cambiare, which means exchange or trade.
Dice games stuck around and later came card games like poker. Authorities insist that poker is a game of chance, while the professionals in the field disagree: they maintain that it is a skill game. Big difference, and even though I am not very good at it, I tend to agree with the professionals.
Back in the day, poker was played in dubious establishments where sometimes there were not only cards on the table but also guns. Some of that history became poker lingo, like the expression under the gun. This indicates the position of the player who is first to act after the dealer has put the first three cards on the table.
These days, poker and other gambling games are a lot safer, especially since they have become available online. Anyone can play these games in their underwear without running the risk of getting shot by an angry opponent.
The operators of online gambling sites, usually based in countries with limited or lacking oversight like Curacao and Malta have jumped on the bandwagon because they realized that there is money to be made from poor sods with a hunger for gambling.
According to the Dutch public prosecutor’s office, these operators make as much as $190 million from their online shenanigans. Don’t get me wrong: I have no problem with companies making a healthy profit, but it becomes a different ballgame if gambling-operators have a shady background or if they work without having a permit.
Why? These companies have one objective and that is: to squeeze as much money as they can out of people who are stupid enough to play on their sites. It is unclear whether their games are fair or whether they are accessible for minors who play with the credit card of their parents.
So there are plenty of valid reasons to ban some online gambling operators from your market. That does not mean that governments should ban all online gambling, but they are entitled to establish a permit-system that holds such operators accountable.
And that is not easy. Take for example the huge fine the Dutch Authority on Games of Chance imposed on Novatech, a provider of illegal gambling sites. As soon as the operators received the fine they dissolved the company and the fine became just a footnote in the history of online gambling.
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