Power To The People – The Rise Of Internet Gambling

Gambling is not a new phenomenon. The main conflict in the Iliad – one of the most renowned and revered works in classic literature – comes when a bet is made between three goddesses, whilst the first record of actual gambling comes from China in 2000BC. Therefore it is no surprise that in the global village of today online gambling is a multi-billion pound industry, where anyone with an online connection can try his or her luck, whether it is for high stakes poker or for fun with online bingo.

During the mid 1990s, when the internet began to take its place as an integral part of our lives, the first online gambling website came into being. Initially, due to slower bandwidth speeds and basic servers of the period there were many connectivity issues, meaning network dropouts were a regular occurrence. With this in mind, it is a mark of the popularity of gambling in general that in 1998 Frost and Sullivan, a business research and consulting firm, reported that the industry generated over $800million in revenue.

However, it has not been an easy passage for gamers worldwide. In 2006 the United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which made the offering of offshore internet gambling illegal. The previous year Chinese police arrested nearly 600 people as part of their crackdown on gambling after a Chinese official blew over $300,000 of public money in a North Korean casino. To this day, internet gambling is illegal in both China and the United States, although there is increasing pressure on the US government to legalise online gambling.

Europe has not been so afflicted due to its free trade rules, with the European Union ruling in favour of online gambling companies. This effectively permitted companies based in Europe to continue to offer online gambling services to all member states of the European Union. Despite this, each country is free to choose whether companies based on their soil are permitted to offer such services. It was not until 2008 that Italy introduced legislation to regulate its online gambling industry.

It seems, then, that gambling is inherent in human nature. It is certainly part of our collective history, one of the many common bonds that we share as a species – the desire to risk something to gain reward. This goes some way to explaining why other European countries such as France, Poland and Portugal are currently embroiled in debate as to how to proceed with their own gambling development. One thing is clear – whatever they decide, the dice are here to stay.