Monthly Archives: March 2020

Given concern in Pennsylvania over clearly or potentially illegal gaming devices, it might seem that funds available to law enforcement to crack down on the machines would all be readily put to use.

That is not the case.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board recently found few takers for the grant money it is prepared to dole out for investigations of unlawful gambling in the state.

The gaming board initially set a Jan. 21 deadline for police departments, district attorneys, state police, task forces, and others in law enforcement to apply for grants it has available from an $2 million allocation set aside from state casino revenue.

At its March meeting, the board approved four grants totaling $740,000. Due to the lack of applications to take advantage of the remaining $1,260,000, it announced it was reopening the application process.

$250 Bonus

Only 1x Wager Applies, Playable in PA Only

The four grants announced March 11 were:

Much of the conversation about illegal gambling in the state recently has revolved around increasing popularity at various outlets of skill games, thousands of which can be played at public locations such as bars, convenience stores, and gas stations, as well as in private clubs. Their existence, seemingly operating in a gray area of the law, is a hot source of debate in the state.

For years, state police and other agencies have occasionally busted up video poker operations or sports betting rings.

Such investigations and prosecutions have not generally been seen as a high priority given other law enforcement responsibilities, however, unless organized crime is involved or public complaints become vocal about a particular operation.

In the case of the skill games, there is added hesitation due to debate over whether they are legal or prohibited, a matter still to be sorted out by the courts and potential new state legislation.

The locations that host them say they are a key source of revenue to support their operations, while the casino industry and Pennsylvania Lottery maintain they are an unfair, untaxed, competitor that should be wiped out.

For those who want to continue gambling since the shutdown of all the states casinos March 17 due to COVID-19 health concerns, such devices are one of their remaining opportunities.

The 27 truck stop locations with 135 legal video gaming terminals similar to slot machines have voluntarily suspended play due to the virus, according to the gaming board. The gas stations and markets still open with unsanctioned gambling devices, however, could be allowing people to play them. The gaming board has no control over those.

That continued gambling opportunity has been raised as a health concern by a Parx Casino-backed group that has been trying to get law enforcement officials to crack down on the skill games for months.

At a time in which Pennsylvania casinos have made the difficult but appropriate decision to shut down to protect the health of their patrons, employees, and the public, these machines continue to attract gamblers of all ages, said Peter Shelly, a spokesman for the group, calling itself Pennsylvanians Against Illegal Gambling.

He said the group is now hoping state and local health officials will act to force shutdown of play on the gambling devices, since the virus can be spread by contamination of the surfaces of such machines.

You dont have to be a health expert to know that the extended period of times in which players interact with these machines could accelerate the spread of coronavirus to some of our most vulnerable citizens, Shelly said.

Photo by Valery Evlakhov / Shutterstock.com

Get Alerts For PA Online Gambling Launches!

Subscribe and get alerts on new PA online gambling sites and bonus codes

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

More here:

Funds Are Available To Crack Down On Illegal Gambling, But Who Wants Them? - Penn Bets

MPs have implored online gambling firms to impose a temporary betting cap of 50 a day during the Covid-19 crisis, as evidence emerged that they are pushing punters towards riskier wagers in the absence of mainstream sport.

With events such as the Premier League and Grand National cancelled, gambling companies are heavily promoting obscure sporting competitions, computer-generated virtual sports and online casino games.

An internal email sent by a senior manager at William Hill, seen by the Guardian, advises staff to talk to your customers about what other things they can bet on table tennis and Japanese baseball are proving very popular.

The company has also posted social media adverts from its US Twitter account offering bets on international soccer action, meaning the Belarus Premier League.

Firms including 32Red are advertising on Twitter in a bid to win more custom for online casino games, which have much higher rates of addiction than sports betting.

Both Betway, recently hit with a record 11.6m fine over problem gambling failures, and MansionBet have paid-for Google listings promoting virtual events, where customers bet on computer-generated football matches.

In one instance, a Spanish man who set up an international tournament for players of the Fifa computer game lashed out at bookmakers for offering odds on the games, urging them to stop.

Gambling companies changed strategy after the cancellation of major sporting events, which has sent their share prices into freefall.

In a letter to industry trade body the Betting & Gaming Council, MPs in a cross-party group examining gambling-related harm urged firms not to put protection of their finances before customers wellbeing.

We are deeply concerned that as we go deeper into this crisis, more and more people will turn to online gambling as a distraction, wrote Labours Carolyn Harris, the Conservatives Iain Duncan Smith and SNP MP Ronnie Cowan.

If the industry were to self-impose a daily limit of 50 it would be a clear demonstration that the industry is willing to act responsibly and do what they can to protect society and peoples finances, at this dreadful time.

The MPs also called for a block on customers opening multiple accounts and quicker intervention with customers who display signs of disordered gambling.

Experts warned that people with a gambling disorder, many of whom will be cooped up at home during the coronavirus crisis, are prone to betting on events whose outcome they cannot possibly estimate.

Matt Gaskell, clinical lead for the NHS northern gambling clinics, said: In our clinics some of the most harmful gambling is that which diversifies to betting on things our patients know nothing about.

The industry continues to do all it can to increase profits, keep gamblers immersed and in continual play, at the expense of peoples lives.

Harris said: If theyre targeting someone to bet on this kind of sport, or computer-generated events, it can only be because that person is someone with a problem, to be gambling on something that obscure.

Its the industry trying to capitalise on a national disaster, encouraging problem gambling with reckless and foolhardy behaviour.

Co-chair Duncan Smith added: Its pretty appalling that in the midst of all this difficulty and suffering, gambling companies are so desperate to ensure that those who gamble can continue to throw their money away that they direct them to all sorts of little-known and little-watched sports.

There has also been concern among industry employees that shops remained open for too long before they were eventually ordered to close by Boris Johnson.

In the same email that offered advice on which sports to offer bets on, sent last week, William Hill staff were told it was business as usual in the bookmakers high street stores.

The government had already advised against people gathering in social spaces such as bars and restaurants.

Rival Betfred has also been criticised for continuing to welcome customers into shops, potentially putting staff and gamblers at risk.

One Betfred employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said that staff had been told that they would get hand sanitiser but that it would not arrive for a while.

There were no gloves or nothing like that and we had to clean the shops and clear away the pens people use to write down bets.

I was sitting in there and it was all older people coming in the shop, over-70s staying in there for ages, and it just seemed crazy.

Staff were worried because they have nans and granddads and there are sick people in their families. It just feels like a breeding ground for it.

William Hill said money taken from gamblers betting on Fifa football events had been donated to charity and that it had reduced its marketing spend since the crisis. It said it was being extra sensitive with its marketing messages.

32Red, Betway and MansionBet have been approached for comment.

See the article here:

Coronavirus: gambling firms urged to impose betting cap of 50 a day - The Guardian

The gambling industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has been appealing to customers around the globe for centuries. Unlike many other industries, gambling has managed to remain relevant and popular throughout decades of societal change.

What has made the industry so durable to change is its unique willingness to change and adapt. While we were worrying about the effects of the so-called Millennium Bug, savvy gambling executives were busy investing in online gambling sites.

Online casinos soon became incredibly popular, introducing higher numbers of players to the bold and exciting world of gambling. Despite their early success, online casino sites are now falling in popularity and usage with players opting instead to play through their mobile devices.

In this article, we take a look at the reasons why android gambling apps, in particular,are becoming more popular than traditional browser sites and attempt to predict what the future holds for gambling apps.

Personalization: Online casinos, just like their real-life counterparts offer a huge range of games for customers all in one place. The problem with this, however, is that this range and selection can be off-putting or overwhelming to certain customers.

Every time you log-on to an online casino site you will be inundated with offers on roulette, baccarat, blackjack and slots. This choice slows down the journey from logging on to playing your favorite game.

Mobile apps can let users set up their preferences from the start based on their specific needs and wants. They will also track your usage over time to deliver more personalized content and offers to suit your needs.

If for example, you download a gambling app to take advantage of the latest deals and offers on the most popular mobile slots, then the app will recognize this and advertise slots to you in the future.

In some cases, the app will also monitor your location and provide you with geography-specific content or offers.

Speed: In 2015 Google released previews of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) which were designed to help links posted to Facebook load faster on mobile devices. The project was a success and was rolled out amongst most sites on the internet.

In short, the problem before AMPs was that traditional desktop sites contained too much information for mobile devices, resulting in slower loading times. AMPs effectively stripped away the excess information to load content faster for mobiles.

Despite this, there is still a disparity between speed on desktop and mobile. In addition, some AMPs strip out too much content on mobile devices making navigation difficult.

Mobile gambling apps, on the other hand, carry the benefits of AMPs but with a greater level of control and autonomy from the designer. Everything you need for an enjoyable user experience is available on an app along with speedy loading times.

Also, you can avoid having to sign-in every time you open an app by saving your log-in details along with your preferences. In a world where attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, easy to use, quick and reliable mobile apps are flourishing.

The speed of Mobile apps loading content is even faster than AMP enabled websites.

Everything in one place: Ten years ago, it may have seemed reasonable to expect a customer to navigate a few different tabs whilst using a website. While making a deposit, for example, it may be necessary to direct the user to a different, secure payment tab.

However, that simply wont do for many mobile users nowadays as people seem to prefer having everything in one place. Mobile gambling apps solve that problem with ease.

Firstly most reputable gambling apps are Google Pay enabled, which allows customers to top up their balances with the press of a fingertip rather than navigating to an additional page and then searching for their credit card details.

Similarly, with games, users can remain within the app whether they are playing poker or slots and whether they are reading articles or interacting with other players. This is great for both customers and suppliers as it facilitates an easier experience for the user and lessens the potential of customer distractions for the supplier.

Currently, online gambling represents roughly a third of gambling revenues in most major countries. While it is obviously popular, gamblers still seem to prefer having a punt in land-based venues.

The question that online gambling companies are currently asking themselves is, what do land-based casinos have over us? In short, the answer is simple, land-based casinos offer a complete, realistic experience that online competitors simply cannot recreate.

There is a certain allure, mystique and drama about visiting a casino for the first time, that, try as they might, online casinos simply cannot provide.

Attempts have been made by online providers to level the playing field in the way of live streaming casinos.

Through using the very best streaming cameras, real venues and actual dealers, online providers have managed to foster more of an authentic vibe to their gambling offerings. To fully recreate the experience of land-based casinos more is needed.

Thats why a number of high-profile online gambling companies are investing staggering amounts of money into researching the possibility of virtual reality casinos.

Is VR the next step in mobile gambling?

Whilst news of a breakthrough in technology is still some way off, there are high hopes amongst industry insiders that VR casinos will be the next logical step in the advancement of online casinos.

If this technology is implemented in the right way it could be the catalyst in a huge shift in the gambling industry. The monopoly enjoyed by land-based venues would be no more with the online sector becomes the biggest player in the industry.

To some that might seem like the stuff of science fiction, but if one industry is capable of implementing technological change at a rapid speed, it is the gambling industry.

See more here:

Understanding the increase in usage of Gambling Apps on Android - Phandroid - News for Android

Canada has some of the most liberal gambling laws of any country in the world, with gambling allowed in some form or the other across the country.

However, the types of gambling that are allowed differ based on the province or territory. While Canadian real money casinos are generally permitted across the country, online gambling falls into a bit of a grey area, which we will try and expand on further here.

Online gambling is not illegal by Canadian law; however, the current laws do require any online betting service to be licensed by or owned by a provincial government to be legal.

As a general rule, any form of gambling is illegal in Canada if it is not licensed or managed by either the federal or provincial government. This applies to online gambling too, and so, offshore betting sites are illegal in Canada.

There has actually been a case where an offshore betting site was legally pursued by Canada, with the province of British Columbia forcing Delaware-based Starnet Communications to pay $4 million of its revenue to the government as a fine.

The Ontario government had also forfeited $2 million from the Platinum Sports Book group back in 2013. Thus, as one can see, online gambling in Canada is not without its hazards if done on a non-government approved/licensed website.

Of course, the easiest way out for this is to use Canadian sites. There are plenty of Canadian online betting websites available for punters, without having to worry about breaking the law.

British Columbia actually took the lead in this regard, launching PlayNow in 2004. The site is the only legal site for online betting in the province, offering poker, lottery, bingo, and sports betting.

Manitoba followed British Columbias lead and set up PlayManitoba in 2013, again making it the only legal website for online gambling within that particular province. There is actually a huge opportunity in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as it is the only province in Canada where casinos are banned.

As such, if the provincial government was to set up an online gambling portal there, it would presumably have a lot of demand, as citizens are currently forced to turn to offshore providers at the moment at the risk of prosecution. It is the opposite scenario in Saskatchewan, where casinos are allowed but online gambling is banned.

Truth be told, the online gambling laws of Canada are a grey area, because they do not specifically prohibit citizens from using online gambling sites, only from setting up online gambling sites within the borders of the country.

Thus, citizens can actually use online gambling sites without too much fear of persecution. Moreover, some offshore companies actually operate out of servers in the Kahnawake native reserve, which is definitely within the country.

They might be breaking the law by doing so, but one cannot be sure since Canadian laws regarding online gambling are not very clear.

A case in point is the fact that the Kahnawake Mohawk Nation received an exception under Canadian law to provide online gambling services to customers; it is probably this loophole that is being exploited by the offshore providers who have their servers on the territory.

It is still extremely confusing, with the result that most Canadians usually use offshore providers without any repercussions, barring a couple of high-profile cases of prosecution like the ones mentioned above.

Thus, we see that online gambling in Canada is not straightforward, due to the laws regulating the practice.

In practical terms, players can use offshore gambling sites without any issues, even though legally they are not allowed, and it is this paradox which needs to be solved quickly.

Canada has been remarkably progressive with regard to gambling as a whole, and it is time it fixes its laws so that the online gambling sector can also catch up to the times.

View original post here:

Does Canada need more gambling regulations? - Euro Weekly News

BRUSSELS, 23 March 2020 Global concerns about the coronavirus (COVID19) have led to a 11% drop in forecasted global gambling revenues in 2020* with 2020 global gambling gross win downgraded from its pre-COVID19 forecasts of $473bn to $421bn (close to 2016 levels), according to industry analysts H2 Gambling Capitals new weekly COVID Impact Tracker.

Currently major sports events suspended or canceled due to the virus include footballs the English Premier League, Spains la Liga, Germanys Bundesliga and the European Champions League, as well as The Masters golf major, and the UKs Grand National horserace all major events for European bookmakers.

In 2018, EGBA members generated 2.36bn in online sports betting revenue, accounting for 44% of their total online gambling revenues**.

Its sad that so many iconic sporting events are being cancelled or suspended and it will obviously have a negative impact on our sector. But the safety and health of the public is obviously more important and we fully support the sporting authorities and others in the difficult decisions they face right now, said Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA).

* Based on latest available information.** EU-28 market only.

Visit link:

Coronavirus Concerns Leads To 11% Drop In Forecasted Global Gambling Revenues - CalvinAyre.com

It is quite clear that the industry is tightening its grip on the world of football, says Carolyn Harris MP. | PA Images

4 min read4 hr

The advertising of the gambling industry in all sport is partly responsible for the endemic growth of gambling related harm in this country.

Gambling advertising in sport is widespread. It is growing at a frightening rate, and nowhere more so than in the world of football.

Britains favourite game is at risk of being overwhelmed by an industry that is putting profits above public safety and wellbeing. With 1.8 million at risk gamblers in the UK and approximately 500 suicides linked to gambling each year, we need to see restrictions put in place urgently to protect young and vulnerable supporters from being bombarded by an industry that has shown time and time again how unscrupulous it really is.

With 27 of the 44 clubs in The Premier League and The Championship having shirt sponsorship deals with gambling companies and almost all clubs having an official gambling partner, it is quite clear that the industry is tightening its grip on the world of football.

The clubs have to take a more responsible approach to the deals that they enter into, and broadcasters also need to clampdown on advertising and acknowledge and improve their duty of care to their viewers.

But alongside this we also need to see huge improvements from the gambling industry regulators, who are currently overlooking the gross negligence by organisations that they are licencing when it comes to advertising.

On their website, the Gambling Commission state that The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code requires that marketing communications for gambling must not be likely to be of particular appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture..

Yet they are doing nothing about the barrage of advertising that is being openly aimed at the young and vulnerable who watch football or even those that play on games like Fifa 2020 a firm favourite with many primary school aged children.

It frightens me how much influence this industry is able to have on children and on those who are already struggling with a gambling addiction.

These young people idolise the players from their favourite teams. Clubs must take responsibility for this and realise that children will be influenced by whatever the clubs and the players are promoting and normalising.

And I know of problem gamblers who look at the shirt sponsors to find new companies to open accounts with. It is blatantly obvious that the advertising of this industry in all sport is partly responsible for the endemic growth of gambling related harm in this country.

Live matches, broadcast games, television highlight shows and simulated computer games so many ways for the logos of these companies to become part of everyday life for millions of people.

The gambling companies are using this means of advertising to prey on their victims. This industry is profiting from it, the football clubs and other sporting bodies are profiting from it and the broadcasters are profiting from it. The only ones losing out are the ones who can least afford it; the ones who are cursed with an addiction; the ones who will grow up and spend their lives battling this demon; the ones who will be left with only memories of a son or daughter, a husband or wife, for whom the pain and suffering of the addiction that has gripped them became too much to live with.

The upcoming gambling review is our chance as Parliamentarians to change this. Myself and my colleagues from the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group will be pushing for a blanket ban on gambling advertising in sport. It is the moral thing to do and I will be urging all colleagues to support this. We must do what the gambling industry, sporting organisations and the broadcasters are failing to do and prioritise the safety and wellbeing of supporters above everything else.

Carolyn Harris is the Labour MP for Swansea East and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.

Read this article:

We need a blanket ban on gambling advertising in sport - PoliticsHome.com

Blocking gambling transactions through banking applications has proven to be a resounding success in Britain. However, in Australia a bank did just the opposite and intentionally raised the spending limit using a problem players credit cards.

Just over 500,000 Britons have already used the innovative payment blocking options to casinos and other gambling sites from their own bank accounts, the Daily Mail reported recently. Reports reveal that the Monzo bank, the first to use the self-exclusion system for two years, already has 220,000 clients who have used the tool.

On the other hand, Starling Bank reported that 200 thousand clients, representing almost a sixth of its total client portfolio, also opted for the option to block gambling payments, while Lloyds bank has already incorporated 120 thousand users into the scheme self-locking and HSBC has just added another 30 thousand to the total.

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced some time ago that from april it plans to ban the use of credit cards for gambling related activities. This is part of a strategy by the British regulator aimed at reducing the damage caused by gambling. It also seeks to demonstrate to parliament that it is not acting deliberately, as has been suggested, due to the UKGCs alleged comfort with regard to authorized operators.

While this is happening in the UK, banks in Australia have considered taking their own initiative to ban the use of credit cards in gambling. The recent decision approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to file a lawsuit against the Commonwealth Bank of Austria (CBA) for not really protecting a gambling player, points in that direction.

During 2016 and 2017, CBA deliberately decided to increase player David Harris credit card spending limit. This happened despite Harris himself having previously notified CBA of his gambling problems and his desire not to accept any other offer of credit until he was certain that he could control his conduct with the game.

CBA not only ignored the players decision, but approved a credit limit increase multiple times. Two years ago, the player revealed to a Royal Financial Services Commission that he had informed the bank that he had gambling problems, something that the bank was able to clearly see due to the transactions I have been doing, and I do not understand why does he keep offering me more money.

In a statement issued by CBA this month, the bank admitted that we did not do the right thing for this client and we apologize. The bank added that after that unfortunate incident it has been making a number of changes, including the transaction blocks initiated by the customer.

Having admitted its error and in accordance with the provisions of the National Consumer Credit Protection Law, the CBA will not assume any defense, so it is awaiting the Australian justice system to establish a sanction against the bank for its failures .

Source: https://calvinayre.com/2020/03/24/business/uk-banking-app-gambling-payment-blocking-popular/

Originally posted here:

UK Successfully Blocks Gambling Activities While Aussie Bank in Abides by the Rules - Tunf.com News

Were all now well into this period of social distancing and virtually no live sport when a Paddy Power tweet pops up on the timeline. The Belarusian Premier League starts today, and the excitement is palpable, it reads with a link to the market for blockbusters such as FC Energetik-BGU Minsk v BATE Borisov and Shakhter Soligorsk v Torpedo BelAZ.

A couple of scrolls further down reveals a Ladbrokes preview of the same upcoming Belarusian action. Where could they possibly have procured a Belarusian football expert from?

Its no coincidence that there has been an increase in ads and emails to customers from bookies with free bets for the likes of online casino and roulette which have much higher rates of addiction than sports betting while, on Monday, Paddy Power were offering 25 free bets to the first three people who could guess how long Paddy Power himself could juggle three eggs for.

Last Friday they opened markets to decide, via various Twitter polls, on Irelands greatest ever international goal. The winner, at odds of 2-1, was Robbie Keanes equaliser against Germany at the 2002 World Cup, narrowly pipping Ray Houghtons winner against England at Euro 1988.

These are lean times for betting companies and anything will do. They are also times of boredom and isolation for lots of people and that could result in a dangerous combination.

The majority of betting shops around the country have been closed since the middle of last week and all live sport in the UK and Ireland, bar one behind closed doors Irish race meeting per day and some greyhound racing, is cancelled, making for a very unwelcome combination for bookies everywhere.

Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of Paddy Power Betfair which took in about 1.8 billion through sport revenues alone last year, initially said that the hit to their business would probably be in the region of 100 million to 120 million for this year and that was assuming that shops would stay open and racing in Britain would continue behind closed doors. But with shop doors now firmly closed and British race meets including the Aintree Grand National in April cancelled until the end of April at the earliest, its estimated that earnings could fall by a further 30 million per month.

The likes of Ladbrokes and William Hill have said that they fear similar drops in earnings and indeed William Hill has been hit particularly hard with share prices falling from 192p to around 50p.

And while sympathy, even at the best of times, is in short supply for the gambling industry particularly as they managed to cash in on the biggest gambling week of the year at Cheltenham just before everything shut down shop closures mean thousands of cashiers are out of a job until further notice.

The vast majority of gambling is, of course, now done online and there is no fear of websites closing but with nothing to bet on, what do people bet on?

Well, the first point to make is that there is never actually nothing to bet on. Theres always some live sport to throw a few quid on no matter what time of day or night it is and even during a global pandemic. Aside from the Irish horse racing that is still going on, the top markets on the Paddy Power website at the time of writing remains football. This would usually be dominated by Premier League or Champions League action but on this day the top billing is taken up by the (now vitally important) Belarusian Premier League, followed by the Singapore S-League while there are also games coming up from the Palestinian West Bank League as well as some live in-play action from the Belarusian Reserve League.

Slim pickings, to say the least.

Indeed it has been interesting to look around the various betting websites over the last week to see the tabs for online casino and virtual sports creeping up the sidebar. With so little real-life sport on these markets could prove crucial for bookmakers in these times, particularly for some, such as Paddy Power, who generate far more revenue from sport than online gaming, unlike companies such as William Hill and Ladbrokes whose revenues are more evenly split between the two areas.

Most companies are now tweeting advertisements and links to virtual markets. A quick scroll through Boylesports Twitter feed shows messages such as You can bet on virtual events every minute 24/7! alongside a link to the nine different virtual markets they offer while Ladbrokes were among those pushing Sundays nights virtual Bahrain Grand Prix.

Boylesports themselves have said they have seen amodest increase in betting on online gaming and virtual sports.

Virtual horse racing first started appearing during the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001 when all live racing, including the Cheltenham Festival, was cancelled around Britain and Ireland. The virtual market has now moved on to include the likes of virtual football, virtual motorsport and virtual cycling.

The system behind it is essentially a visual representation of a random lottery, weighted overall in favour of the bookmaker, meaning that there is no form to study or research to do, so races can happen much quicker and, of course, punters can bet on them much quicker.

On most websites virtual races take place every two minutes while virtual football matches and rugby league matches are every three minutes, each lasting less than a minute. All day, every day.

The concern is that the faster events, and the less time between them, could lead to problems for some people, more so than would be the case for regular horse races or football matches where bets cant be placed quite as frequently.

That is not what you want to be getting sucked into. That is extremely dangerous stuff, says Barry Grant, CEO and founder of Problem Gambling Ireland. Ive worked with a lot of people over the years who are into virtuals whether its in the shop or online and its a step away from slot machines, which are the most addictive form of gambling you could possibly imagine. Its that high frequency form of betting where its just bang, bang, bang, like roulette or something similar.

It would concern me big time lets say if the Government pull the plug on horse racing and greyhound racing in Ireland, then basically theres no live stuff on anymore, apart from some obscure countries around the world. So youre looking at the virtuals where youre gambling more money at a higher frequency every two minutes if youre talking about virtual races.

Some bookies, such as Unibet, have only added virtual sports in the last week or so to attempt to curb potential losses during the ongoing pandemic while Betfair, to give one example, have been emailing out free bets for their online games with the condition that you must wager three times the amount of the free bet before any money can be withdrawn.

In the UK, where updating and tightening gambling legislation is moving at a much faster pace than in Ireland, MPs have called for gambling companies to impose a cap of 50 per day on customers for fear that increased isolation and boredom could lead to gambling problems during the current period of little or no live sport.

Nothing of the like has been proposed in Ireland and, even if it was, it would be up to the bookies themselves to impose it as there is still no gambling regulator here, with the updated Gambling Control Bill still stalled in the Dil and presumably now a long way down the list of priorities since 2013.

When contacted by The Irish Times about how the current pandemic would affect business and whether online gaming and virtual activity had increased in recent days Paddy Power declined to comment, while Boylesports who have said they will continue to pay all staff during the time that their shops are closed said that, as Irelands largest retail bookmaker, shop closures will have a significant impact on our business.

This article is part of a series of consumer-based sports stories. If you have any queries, stories or issues regarding travel, tickets, sport on television or anything else you can email rcroke@irishtimes.com or via Twitter @Ruaidhri_Croke.

Read more:

Coronavirus: Could a lack of live sport lead to problem gambling? - The Irish Times

The good news? Figures released this week show that last year's scorching summer helped make it the best season for butterflies in Britain for 22 years. Enjoy them while you're banged up in your garden with them.

How times change. Only a few weeks ago we thought Phillip Schofield telling the world he was gay was a really big issue.

You might kill a few idle hours today by making a list of subjects that concerned you a few weeks ago that you no longer even think about.

My list of things I no longer give a flying fig about includes: Militant vegans. Militant veggies. Militant Irish politics, Brexit. The Middle East. Internet influencers. The future of the TV licence. The future of the BBC. Glastonbury. Eurovision. The difference between free- range and barn-raised. Liz Jones (Sunday Times columnist) being relegated to the second row at a fashion show. Any of Boris Johnson's relatives. Extinction Rebellion. A third runway at Heathrow. Earthquakes anywhere south of Dover.

I do, however, worry about online gambling. It should be banned. With millions of Brits stuck at home 24/7, the old adage the Devil finds work for idle hands springs to mind. At the best of times, online gambling is a wicked temptation. Combine it with a captive housebound audience and it's a second pandemic.

A phrase you'll hear a lot is the new normal. And how quickly it happens. Two weeks ago we would never have dreamed things would have come to this. But we change, we adapt, we accept the deeply abnormal as normal. As a people we have passed this way before. In 1939, as the Second World War kicked off, Britain changed from being a perfectly rational nation into believing that George Formby was amusing.

In law, we all have a duty of care for each other. Long after Whitehall urged the pubs to close, some bars stayed open and one publican declared he would stay open until he was forced to stop. There will be a reckoning. When this pandemic is over, the lawyers will have a field day.

In the daily Bible of the Left, columnist Will Hutton applauds Rishi Sunak's economic measures, hailing him as highly intelligent, economically literate, agile and with acutely sensitive political antennae. So the Guardian is singing the praises of a Tory chancellor. That's how serious things are.

Blame-shifting department. I am buying prudently; you are a panic-buyer. I am storing a sensible amount of food; you are a hoarder. I keep my social-media friends well informed; you are a panic-monger. I am selling Paracetamol at a very reasonable mark-up; you are a vile profiteer. I chat to friends in the park; you break the social-distancing rules. I visit people unannounced as a nice surprise; you are Typhoid Mary.

Visit link:

Peter Rhodes on changing times, changing priorities and time to change the rules on online gambling - expressandstar.com