Internet Gambling Not a Threat
Tommy Wells, the Council Member of the District of Columbia, believes that the legalization of online gambling in Washington DC was a bad decision and he intends to introduce a legislation to block online gambling even before it is tried in the state. Wells believes that the process of online gambling is not transparent and also believes that online gambling will cause negative effects on people.
Wells stated that online gambling could become an addiction and he only wants what is good for the public. But Psychiatry Professor Howard J. Shaffer of the Harvard Medical School has stated that the consequences of online gambling on the public would be minimal. Prof. Howard and his colleague Ryan Martin co-authored an article titled Disordered Gambling: Etiology, Trajectory and Clinical Considerations” that shed light on a lot of the perceived knowledge that surrounds gambling and its effects on society. The article shows that a number of pathological gamblers who were above the age of 35 years had actually decreased from 0.7% to 0.6% and this took place at a time when there were major expansions happening in the US gambling industry. As good as Wells’ intentions may be, it does seem a little dramatic.