America is Only Fooling Itself
October 28, 2009
Ever since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA the American government has felt that they have exerted some form of control over the online gambling arena. This of course is not true. In fact online gambling has more than doubled since the passage of the UIGEA. Experts say that this could be for several reasons, one of which is that the UIGEA brought online gambling to life for many people weren't even really aware that it existed. They also say that there is a good chance that for many Americans once the government told them they couldn't do something they started doing it just because they were told that they couldn't.
We are quick to judge those who we feel are not following the same rules that we ourselves don't follow. Take for example China who recently announced that they would be installing a computer chip in all of the computers that were used and sold in China that would block access to online gambling websites. As a nation we were outraged and we stepped forward to tell them that this was an infringement of their basic human rights. However isn't that what the UIGEA is for Americans?
We pretend that we know best when it comes to most things, yet the UIGEA is a perfect example of how we really don't know much of anything. If someone is determined to do something they are going to do it. There are consumers all across the country who are currently participating in online gambling and have no plans on stopping.
We are like children who believe that if we say it loudly enough that someone will listen to us and someone will believe us that it is so. In the case of online gambling we can say as loud as we want but were not fooling anyone except ourselves into thinking that the UIGEA has done anything except scare off those people who weren't truly dedicated to it in the first place.
