China has always been rather restrictive about the content that people in their country are allowed to view and from August 1, 2010 a new law has been put in place to further crackdown on gaming and gambling sites. These new laws are described as necessary to protect children from unwholesome content and Internet addiction. The law is aimed at online games, which target children, and states they must be free from content that can cause behavior problems violating social morals. In this fast growing country it is estimated this new law will affect 420 million surfers.
Online gambling has already been totally banned in the US since 2006. This did not stop the industry from growing but merely forced companies to relocate overseas. Other companies have got around this law by changing their poker games to win fake money or points and make their profits from advertising instead. After a 4-year ban the House Financial Services Committee is now looking to pass measures that will make many forms of online gambling legal again.
If and when this bill becomes law, many social games would be in a position to take advantage of this and easily open the doors to real cash betting. Imagine slot machines and cash jackpots in Farmville! Place bets on the outcome of a high score contest with your friends! With so many game developers and social websites around the world, the potential for online gambling addiction in social games is frightening.
With tight controls elsewhere, Europe is currently generating nearly half of all the $29 billion revenue. This has not gone un-noticed by European governments who now view this industry as a good revenue generator and means of collecting additional taxes from companies’ earnings. Countries such as France and Denmark have liberal laws in place to encourage business and other countries such as Germany, Spain and Switzerland are taking a more liberal view.
Keen to get in on some of the action Housing and Social Development Minister, Rich Coleman from British Columbia, Canada believes it is better to offer people in his province legal regulated alternatives. Currently people are betting $100 million a year on illegal sites. He maintains that the new revenue could go into health care and higher education. However, there are already 31,000 people with severe gambling problems according to the B.C. medical association. Would opening the gates make the problem worse and how much of the new revenue would go into helping gambling addicts?
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Tags: computer games, Gambling, games, online games, PC games