Internet Gambling - Research Paper Example

The paper "Internet Gambling" is a worthy example of a term paper on social science. The world of the 21st century is an era of fast pace and extreme development. The high level of interconnectivity provided by the modern-day telecommunication technology has played a major role in aligning the countries and masses around the world. The evolution of the internet has played a major role in enabling organizations for entering new markets and tapping new consumer segments for achieving significant growth in the business fronts.

The rise of competition in the business scenario through the opening of markets and boundaries as a result of modern-day growth of economies and countries are leading to the rise of laws regarding intellectual property rights, which provides a sole authority to a person for using and applying the benefits associated with the development and production of a new work (WIPO, “What is Intellectual Property?”). Brief HistoryThe advent of internet technology has promoted a lot of virtual businesses whose mode of conducting the operational business processes is solely dependent on the internet platform.

In recent times, with the growth and development of various kinds of computer technology, online gaming has become a major incident of attraction all over the world. With a significant amount of gaming content being available to consumers around the world, it has been estimated that the online gaming industry is expected to generate revenue of around 750 million around the year 2012.A very specific part of this gaming industry comprises of the online gaming division. It has always been known that Americans have a tendency to indulge in gambling.

As per statistical inputs, over the last decade, around 10 million Americans have resorted to the process of participating in online gambling and have spent around $30 billion within the time frame of 2003 to 2010.The first online portals for gambling were set up by two US-based companies around 1994 in the West Indies while targeting US customers. Following the rising demand of online gambling in the US, other countries like Australia and Canada also focused on developing the market for the same (Animerica, “Banning Online Gambling Appears Futile in the Internet Age”).

Court case ExampleThough online gambling phenomena have a high attraction in various countries around the world, yet it has always faced legal challenges in the United States. Several attempts by the US government to announce online gambling as unlawful led to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) (Stoppredatorygambling.org, “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 – Fact Sheet”). The law, apart from restricting US-based companies to operate online gambling portals, also prohibited banks and credit companies in the US to financial transactions related to online gambling.

In the most recent times, there are quite a few court cases that have grabbed the attention of the masses and had become a turf for the significant display of power by the State government and the various online gambling communities. The most notable among them was the Kentucky Internet Gambling Case.Kentucky Internet Gambling CaseThe Kentucky Internet gambling case gained quite a media glare around the year 2010, as the State announced the seizure and possible forfeiture of as many as 141 gambling domain names in the state of Kentucky.

The case became a major arena of power play between the lawyers represented by the state as well as that of the ones belonging to Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA), who represented the forfeited gambling domains. However, the ruling went in favor of the state and finally led to the transferring of controls of around 132 online gambling domains to the control of the state.Moral IssuesIt has to be mentioned that the rising popularity of online gaming industry all over the world brings into the forefront some serious moral issues.

Age-related issues Gamblers age is one severe moral issue that is associated with online gaming. Because of the lack of ability to properly identify the age of the gamblers, online gaming can potentially expose underage players to indulge in the games meant for the grownups.Gambling addictionAnother major moral issue in the case of gambling addiction. Easy access to various online gaming portals may influence the tendency of a human being to indulge in gambling as compared to participate in a physical manner (Welch and Crowley, “Ethics of Online Gambling”).

Fraud possibility The online gambling also promotes the possibility of fraud case scenarios where the online gamblers can be made to play in gambling deals where the payouts are not as per the rules of the game. Also, there are chances of possible collusion among a number of players which may also trigger the chances of fraud scenarios since it is a form of cheating other players (Stewart, Ropes and Gray, 12).