Going to a casino used to be an adventure. In decades past, one would have to make a road trip to the hot, dusty gambling Mecca of Las Vegas, survive on all-you-can-eat shrimp buffets and hold out for the big score that would make it all worth it.
Not anymore.
Gamblers can now try their odds on the Internet, where countless online casinos and bookmaking operations have set up shop to bring the gambling experience to your computer.
The varied Web sites offer 24-hour access to casino-style gambling. Players can log on at any time, bet scads of money and most often shut down their computers poorer than when they logged on.
At a time when Internet usage is exploding and consumers are finding new ways to talk and shop online, it seems only natural that casinos would follow the scent of Internet cash. But gambling online is an often dangerous proposition that makes it even easier to lose money at casinos.
Luca Jacky, a biology graduate student, said that he dabbled in online sports betting and came out a loser.
“I lost money at generally every type of casino game I tried,” he said. “I also bet on sports games and won some money, but it’s pretty risky, and I don’t do it anymore.”
Jacky said he lost interest in online gambling because he found it difficult to collect some of his winnings and it was hard to place his trust in an online operation.
“It’s unregulated, so I got the impression that it was a pretty questionable area,” he said. “And it’s kind of a pain in the ass to get your money when you’ve won. Once, I didn’t get a check, but the place is in Antigua, so what are you going to do?”
Betting on casino games and sports events at unlicensed gambling operations is illegal in Oregon, and offenders face a stiff fine or even prison time. Jacky said he wasn’t aware that what he was doing was against the law.
“They didn’t say anything about that, and I just thought it was a new technology that hadn’t been regulated,” he said.
Almost all online casinos and bookmaking operations are based offshore in countries such as Antigua and Costa Rica to avoid prosecution, and although most make the claim that their transactions are secure, Jacky said he found it hard to put his trust in a nebulous entity like a Web site.
Although online casinos can escape prosecution, Internet gamblers aren’t so lucky. Jan Margosian, spokeswoman for the Oregon State Attorney General’s Office, said that online gambling is a violation of Oregon criminal gambling statutes.
“That’s what’s interesting about the Internet; it’s a global medium,” Margosian said. “It makes it very hard to prosecute people who gamble online.”
However, Margosian said that prosecuting online gamblers wouldn’t be out of the question.
Kent Mortimore, assistant district attorney for Lane County, said that although his office hasn’t seen any online gambling cases, he predicts they’ll start popping up soon.
“I think we’ll see more as the Internet becomes more pervasive,” he said. “We would prosecute someone if we had a case, but I don’t want to speculate on what that might be.”
One of the dangers of online gambling is that it provides easy access to betting opportunities without ever leaving the home, a problem that could prove disastrous for people with compulsive gambling problems.
Nita Vannice, a certified counselor with ACES Counseling, Inc., a gambling counseling organization funded by state lottery dollars, said that she has seen more and more cases dealing with out-of-control online gambling.
“Online gambling allows a gambler to do it in isolation and with increased secrecy,” she said. “People who gamble get a rush by getting caught, and by going to a computer, they can get away with it and get a bigger rush.”
Vannice said most of the cases she’s seen involve people who already are into gambling, but she didn’t deny the possibility that the easy access could create problems for the casual user.
Jacky agreed and said that he could have easily gotten sucked in.
“It’s a big problem because it provides easy access to lots of gambling,” he said. “All you need is a credit card.”
Vannice said that one of the biggest dangers is that almost all online gambling transactions are done through credit cards. No cash changes hands, and that can make it easier for gamblers to lose track of how much they’ve lost.
“There’s no connection with real money,” Vannice said. “You sign on with a credit card and don’t find out how much you’ve lost until you sign out.”
Online casinos offer gamblers convenience, anonymity and variety, but the risks involved could make a road trip to Vegas seem like a safer bet.