Gambling certainly isn’t new to humans, we’ve likely been doing so as long as we’ve been around. Traditionally, Irish people have usually associated betting with our huge endemic horse racing industry; middle-aged men flocking to a betting shop to stand intertwined in one another amidst a bath of pens and losing dockets. In the main, betting was shunned by the multitudes, deeming it ‘a mug’s game’. However, the demographic of gamblers has changed dramatically in this country in recent years, and the emergence of the online industry has played a pivotal role. This blog will focus on the online gambling market, its marketing ploys, and their blatently unethical nature.
The market for online gambling is so vast it’s uncapped. The revenue gained by huge players in the industry is seen as the success of the marketing campaigns they employ. Markets are available to bet on anything that moves in this day and age. You can wager on anything from the amount of corner kicks in a football game, to the year we prove the existence of alien life on Paddy Power’s site. . “Anyone with a credit card and access to a computer modem is just a click away from gambler’s heaven” (CNN, 1998). The problem with all this is the manner in which gambling is being marketed today. Betting has become a social activity, with both men and women of all ages getting involved, oblivious to the dangers associated with it; emulating everyone else in spending their hard earned. This conformity is testament to the marketing campaigns. Betting firms lure people into gambling through advertising during games on TV, showing young people innocently placing money on possible future events in the game and winning, and when peer’s see others winning they emulate the behaviour in the main; it’s free advertising effectively.
Where are the restrictions on where these huge firms can market their services? There is a huge lack of law enforcement and regulatory control on gambling still. Years ago, tobacco companies were allowed sponsor sporting events and advertise on TV. How is it ethical that these firms can do the same? Society is allowing the same occurrence with an activity just as dangerous. Why do we need to make the same mistake repeatedly? The public are standing by allowing people get addicted to something that can ruin their lives, which is being wrongly publicised as a social activity by sinister companies. Most of these companies don’t even pay their tax in this country, rather base themselves on a Caribbean Island tax haven. This activity is synonymous with the heroin epidemic in the United States in the 1970s to me.
I’m just the little guy though, just another opinionated blogger.
Until next time, I suppose.
Ned.
References:
Purge and says, L.M. (2013) Is gambling ethical? Available at: https://libertarianmoney.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/is-gambling-ethical/
Can gambling be ethical? (2011) Available at: http://www.noforbiddenquestions.com/2011/06/can-gambling-be-ethical/
Network, C.N. (1998) Should online gambling be regulated? – march 12, 1998. Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9803/12/internet.gambling/index.html
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