Problem Gambling Expert Says Online Casino Banning Not the Answer

Carol O’Hare who is the director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling stated THAT BANNING ONLINE GAMBLING IS NOT THE ANSWER. In speaking to the Las Vegas Sun, she urged that education and treatment is the most efficient method for problem gambling and not legal bans.

She stated that “problem gambling is not going away because somebody puts it in a corner or puts the casino too far out of town so that we don’t drive there or take it off the Internet,” said O’Hare in response to a question about whether Internet gambling should be illegal. “We tried prohibition in this country once. It didn’t work.”

O’Hare said, “We have to continually be focusing on how do we mitigate the circumstances for these individuals, not how do we regulate the problem out of existence.”

She also pointed out that the percentage of gamblers who develop problem gambling issues remains fairly constant, and reiterates the belief commonlyb held by mental health specialists and supported by scientic studies that compulsive gambling is another aspect of the mental disorders that form substance abuse issues.

These and other statements flew when faced aurguments were presented by a lot less trained vouenteers and religious anti-gambling heads, that assume banning online casinos would prevent the spreading of problem gamblers and the damage from it.

All of this just goes to show that banning the online gambling will not solve any problem but possibly make it worse.