As any businessperson will tell you, lust and greed are two of the biggest pillars of commerce. Appealing to either is a surefire way to attract scrutiny from the government, but they are also time-honored cash cows.
Appeals to lust on the Internet have been widely discussed, but appeals to greed have not been so prominent. I’m talking about gambling on the Internet, which Nielsen//NetRatings data show is not nearly as popular as sex on the Internet. Sure, few things are as popular as sex, but I was surprised at the relatively low number of visitors that gambling sites are attracting these days.
This issue came up recently when Nielsen//NetRatings looked at the growth of sweepstakes, gaming and situs pkv sites. Sweepstakes sites are going gangbusters — everyone likes the idea of winning something for nothing — and gaming sites regularly attract audiences in the millions.
LOW NUMBERS
A quick look at the top gambling sites, though, showed that none has made it into the million-visitor club. And number 10 on the list draws a puny audience by Internet standards.
I have some theories about why Las Vegas and Monte Carlo don’t need to worry anytime soon. There’s the entertainment aspect, for one thing. The Internet doesn’t offer the flashing lights, free alcohol, cheap food and other accoutrements found in an offline casino. Payoffs come on credit card statements, not in cold, hard cash. And there are a lot of easy offline alternatives — everything from betting at the local track to buying a lottery ticket is easily available.
The social stigma of gambling is minimal and probably not likely to drive people online for the sake of privacy — going to the local convenience store and buying a lottery ticket is less embarrassing than buying the latest Hustler.
TRUST ISSUES
Other factors that cause people to think twice about betting the house with a click of the mouse include trust issues and the demographics of the gambling public. Surfers are less apt to enter their credit card information at a site that could prove to be a front for fraud, and even the leading site, Virtual Vegas, does not have a brand name well known to the average surfer. In fact, a quick look at the top 10 list from Nielsen//NetRatings reveals few well-known brand names.
The fact that online gambling requires a credit card probably stops a lot of people. It’s one thing to lose cash and another to do it at a 20% or higher interest rate. Also, studies have historically shown that the socioeconomic status of folks who really like gambling tends to be lower than average. If they have a hard time maintaining a good credit rating, they may not have a credit card at all or may have a card with too low a limit to allow much gambling online.
PLUS SIDE
On the plus side, Internet gambling offers privacy and convenience, two factors that appeal to those who are not near a racetrack, for example, or who find a Las Vegas vacation too expensive.
Then, of course, the online gambling industry faces the specter of government intervention. Several bills have been introduced in Congress to prohibit gambling on the Internet; to date, none has passed.
I don’t have a strong opinion on the issue of whether online gambling should be banned outright, although I do think it makes better sense to regulate it than to prohibit it altogether, given that gambling is available offline, legally, in so many forms. The point is that the issue is probably moot, given the number of people wagering in cyberspace.
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