Online Gambling Still Increasing

March 30, 2009

For anyone who thought that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, would stop online gambling from happening, they haven�t really been paying attention. The fact of the matter is that more people are participating in online gambling than ever before. In fact, they are playing it in droves, and the biggest growing group of those playing is college students.

Online gambling is visited by all age groups, all demographics, and the UIGEA did not have an effect on most of those that were already playing. It did however, pull some out of the closet who simply started playing because they were told they could not � but the largest group, college students, do it simply because they think they can make more money at that then they could with their regular jobs.

But if the state of Florida has its way they might be looking at an increase in gambling from the college students as well. They have two new bills currently in the Senate that would change the gambling age from 21 to 18. They say that this would bring in exponentially more money for those casinos that are currently limited to those 21 and older.

They say that the biggest reason that they are looking to do this is because they have a disparity in the age of gambling among the games themselves. An 18 year old can play poker, the lottery and gamble at horse tracks, but they cannot play slots, blackjack or any Class III casino games. They thought that it would be better if it was uniform across the board, and knew that it would also bring in more money.

 

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