Why Does The Gambling Industry Attract So Much Government Criticism?
Ever since the first bet was placed many hundreds of years ago, the gambling industry has never been far away from the political agenda all over the world. Why does the industry attract so much criticism and is it really deserved?
There are a number of reasons why the industry attracts so much criticism, but when you compare the sector to other areas of business, it is probably the most heavily regulated of them all. The sector seems to attracts so much criticism because of issues including :-
Taxes
The authorities can sometimes find it very difficult to collect the taxes which they feel are deserved to the state, with a number of unlicensed gambling arrangements in use around the world. It seems that the fully licensed, fully regulated operations are suffering because of this.
Addiction
There is no doubt that where there is a lack of controlled help for gamblers, there can be problems with addiction. However, the sector has been very vocal and proactive in promoting addiction services and they have proved to be a big hit with the small minority who do suffer problems.
Power
The sector is growing each year, and when you consider that a new area of the industry created in Macau has taken only 5 years to grow, and is now ahead of the famous Las Vegas strip on revenues, you can sense the power. This growth has given the casino operators a lot of influence in certain areas of the world, as they can have a massive impact upon local employment opportunities and local tax income.
The Internet
This is perhaps one of the main reasons why the authorities have taken on the gambling operators, with a perceived lack of control and confusion as to where these companies should be paying their corporation taxes. They may claim they are protecting the public, but in reality they are trying to protect their offline gambling industries and extract as much tax as possible from these companies.
The battle between the authorities and the gambling industry (especially the online sector) has become a battle of wits, with the loser blinking first - but who will hold out?