Legal Internet Gambling in the US : An Editorial Investigation

As every person in America I dream of living a rich life. I long to be happy, but I also long to pay my bills without having to worry at the end of each month. I long to give money to my family members who are most in need. After my family is secure I would like to travel the world and discover many unique cultures and visit many amazing scenes. And I want to relax. For once in my life I want to be able to relax. But I can't relax until my family is secure and my family will not be secure until I make money. But I need BIG money to live in my dreams and I need it quick because my blood pressure is high and I am scared of the future.

That mind frame, along with a sense of arrogance gained from several former business successes, led me to a legal form of Internet gambling in the United States.

From my other businesses I have learned never to jump into anything without first doing a great deal of research. So I went to Google and typed in some search terms that I thought would result in me getting some good advice on where and how to begin. Not surprisingly, Google showed over 3.5 million results. On the first page of the results I saw thirteen ads above and beyond the ten real search results, all of which were titled almost identically to the term that I originally typed in, all of them enticing me to come in and play.

I clicked on the first site that I recognized and there I found a great deal of useful information. The site told me this was all perfectly legal. It explained to me that I could be up and running in less than a few minutes. It explained that before I knew it I could be using my account to play with real money however I wanted. Beyond that the site offered me a lucrative bonus if I would sign up with them. I could not believe how easy this all was. They even said they would let me start a play account so I could practice before playing for real.

I did not want to jump in too quickly so I clicked on other sites in the search results and I found other sites advertising those sites and I sifted through many ugly bouquets of banners and all of the sites in general told me that all of this was legal and that I could be using real money within no time at all. So I went back to the first site that I clicked on because I am a superstitious person and I opened an account with them.

One time quickly they asked me for proof of my age, which I readily supplied for them. Then they asked for my bank account number, a check routing number, an actual check number and a first deposit amount. They asked for a few personal details such as how much money I expected to keep in the account at all times, how often I would be playing, etc. Everything was approved and I was told I had to wait five days for my $10,000 check to go through. In the meantime, they explained, I could play with fake money in order to practice. Many times in very small print they warned me of the dangers of my future actions, and many times I clicked the box that said I understood. Literally, in less than ten minutes I had a play account and was up and running.

Now if you remember correctly I told you that I wanted to make big money quickly, so I extensively studied the industry in order to find the area that paid the biggest dividends in the shortest amount of time. I figured that if it was legal it must be safe and if there was any logic to it at all I would figure it out and ultimately win. I called friends who knew the industry. I found out an Uncle of mine made BIG money doing this stuff, but then found out he actually lost a ton of money and he taught me of his mistakes. I did a lot of research and ultimately, my research led me to the pennies. Not penny slots, but penny stocks.

The penny stocks, my research told me, would be less predictable, and made many more intelligent people than myself lose a fortune, so I would have to be careful. I would have to study hard, come up with a plan and stick religiously to that plan, just as I used to do when I would play the penny slots online. When I played the penny slots last year I made thousands of dollars using a simple formula that sometimes failed but inevitably paid me out big winnings. So if this was safer than that and there was logic to it I figured I could make a fortune and thus make all my dreams come true.

I understood what I needed to do. I worried about those less intelligent than I for they could easily lose a ton of money playing this game. I felt sorry for them, for all that is wrong with this situation. I moved on.

I set out an intelligent plan. I would wake up early and stay up late. I would watch the stocks, read the news - don't follow the ads that tried to get you into a get rich quick scheme - buy based on research, study the company details, base decisions on realistic projections from detailed analysis that would possibly result in huge short term gains, get rich, retire early, live good, be happy, praise the Lord.

I practiced for five days and finally saw my check for $10k enter my account. My new day trading profession was underway and I bought 200,000 shares of a stock that I had researched extensively. I expected it to double, however, I got scared after two days of it doing nothing and I sold it after it went up slighltly. First buy, success! I thought, this could work.

I have two large computer screens on one computer, one showing charts and graphs, the other showing tickers and top gainers. My laptop sat next to them displaying the news wires which updated every second. This was fun.

And addicting. I woke up at 7 in the morning every day, made myself a pot of coffee, skipped lunch, watched the line graphs go up and down, drank more coffee, ignored my family, and dreaded 4 p.m., when the markets would close.

I made some money at first and the more money I made the more daring I got. Eventually I turned my $10k into $20k. Then a stock I bought had a reverse split. I lost $5k. Then mysteriously, one stock that had shown good news for weeks on end and slowly raised, stopped showing news at all and slowly went down. Scared and not sure what to do I waited. Eventually, that stock reverse split and I was down another $7k. I only had $8k left in my account, but I was confident I would not fall victim to these bad moves again.

Four of my other stocks that I figured would be longer term gains slowly depreciated. The four of them together went down another $5k. Now I was worried. I deposited $10,000 less than two months ago and I was then sitting at $2k total left. That's when I realized that I never would have lost this much money last year when I was playing the penny slots. That's when I realized I was gambling and that there was no logic to this game at all. There were no payout rates set at 95%. There was no warnings telling me to stop throwing my money away. At one point the site I played at even prompted me to let me know that my account was getting low in funds and it explained that I could easily deposit more money at any time if I wanted to. I called customer service and they said that I could even make them my primary bank!

I am a free lance writer and do extensive work for Casino Gambling Web, a website that promotes freedom in America and across the world. After being in the Internet gambling industry for several years I can honestly say that I believe it is a smarter decision for a person to casually spend money on safe, in-home entertainment at online casinos than it would be to dive into the stock market. The stock market is more addicting and more dangerous. At no online casino could I make it my personal bank. When Neteller was around I was able to set limits on how much I could spend per week and when my limit was hit it would NOT let me deposit more money, and it did NOT entice me to deposit more.

A little under two years ago I thought of Italy as a dictatorship because they passed a law banning Internet gambling. A once beautiful country became ugly in my eyes. They have since over-turned that ban and now I am living in America, the home of the free, and my country will not let me deposit $100 a week into an online casino because they tell me it is morally wrong. It was my favorite form of entertainment and they took it away from me. It was harmless. I did not spend all day on the computer throwing away money and ignoring my family, like I did when I played in the stock market.

The biggest laugh is that it was easier to sign up to play and deposit money in the United States stock market, than it ever was to do so at an online offshore casino. They each even have the same simple age check verfication methods. And the best part is that you know you are going to lose when you invest in the online casino. The stock market they don't call gambling. They call it investing and they make it seem like anyone with a brain can make money playing.

Politicians who say Internet gambling is illegal in the United States are just plain lying. The truth is that the United States runs the biggest legal Internet gambling site in the world, they just disguise it by calling it by a different name.

April 10, 2007
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!