Internet Gamblers Can Afford It

With some of the recent outcry over the harm that Internet gambling is doing to individuals, families, society, the biosphere and the fabric of the space/time continuum, it's worth looking at some of the stats.

Some of the findings are not that surprising. More than two-thirds of online gamblers are men and the same proportion are under the age of 40. Also somewhat intuitive is that online gamblers tend to be rather well-off, as one might expect of a group that probably owns a computer and pays for high-speed internet access.

41 percent had incomes of more than $75,000 a year, while only 12 percent had incomes of less than $35,000.

It's this relative prosperity that apparently supports the case for legalizing online gambling, as it seems to indicate that there aren't many real victims. Of course, the person with the $75,000 a year income may be losing $50,000 a year gambling, while the guy who makes half that may only be losing $10,000... Still, I appreciate the notion that the little guy isn't screwing himself too badly.

What did surprise me is that over half of respondents (55%) thought that online gambling companies find ways to cheat. If that's the case, why the hell are they gambling online? My only hope for explaining that one logically is that they assume that OTHER companies cheat, but NEVER the ones where they choose to play.

Report: Internet gamblers can afford it [CNN.com]

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