As the Canadian provinces gear up towards implementing online gambling across the country, the Cowboys in Alberta sit on the fence, peering through the window of opportunity, clutching their purses waiting to see what happens in other provinces. Read more.
The reasons for Alberta’s apprehension are a bit puzzling, and to be frank, they’re completely foolish.
According to the article, a “gaming expert” or in other words, some yokel standing naked on a rooftop, says that internet gamblers have higher rates of addiction…What year is it? Haven’t we been down this nonsense road before? Didn’t the Harvard Medical School’s Addictions Department report that gambling addiction had remained virtually static over the past few decades despite the major increases in online betting? Pretty sure they did. Read more.
This so called expert fears a culture of gambling and money laundering, I’m fearing a culture of stupidity. It’s a completely reckless and unfounded statement to suggest the many reputable online gaming operators are portals for money laundering.
Then you have a University of Lethbridge gambling expert saying legalizing and offering online gambling can create a “culture of gambling”. What does that even mean? There are many places outside of Alberta and Canada that already offer legalized online gambling, I fail to see the evidence that their cultures have been replaced by a gambling one, again, what are we talking about here?
Another reason Alberta sits on the fence is their fear that online gambling is more harmful than land based gambling…It’s like some people are living in a cave with their eyes closed, their ears plugged and their heads up their asses, seriously, really? Newsflash, there’s been studies done on this type of stuff! Real smart people that actually take samples of populations and conduct research and tests, they find answers to questions instead of just making shit up, it’s called a school, Harvard, ever heard of it Alberta? Dr. Howard Shaffer, the director of Harvard Medical School’s Addictions Department, clearly stated that the results of the study clash with the common belief that greater accessibility of online gambling would lead to increased incidences of gambling addiction. Specifically, Shaffer said “In this research we provide additional evidence in support of our previous research showing that most subscribers who gamble on the Internet do so moderately”, that study was done over a year ago!
These results are a little something we call facts, facts are reliable, they are tested, they are true and they hold more weight than the verbal diarrhea Alberta’s so called experts are spitting out.
Maybe Harvard should just shut down and burn the campus to rubble, because their research isn’t worth anything, apparently.
