Betting on Gambling
The burning question on everyone’s minds these days is: Where’s the online gambling industry headed? An excellent question indeed; we’ll deal with it later.
As I stood waiting for the elevators this morning in our office building lobby, I suddenly caught myself guessing which of the three elevators would arrive first. In any other profession I suppose I would have just chuckled at the thought and forgot about it the moment the winning elevator’s doors swung open; easier said than done for a hired hand writing for and about the online casino gaming industry.
The Ups & Downs of Online Gambling
For a kick I bet everything I wished I had on elevator number one to come in first. Number three arrived first, but not surprisingly, given that the illuminated numbers above each elevator revealed precisely which floor each elevator was on at the time I placed my wager. (I purposely refrained from peeking at the floor indicators when I was placing my bet, in order to make the contest more exciting.)
The more I thought about what I had done and how conditioned I have become to betting on anything and everything that moves – something I would never have done prior to working in the gambling industry – the more I understood the appeal. Gambling is fun! Risk-taking is fun! Winning mega-bucks is FUN!!! At least I suppose it is.
Beware though, elevators can be deceiving. Granted, the probability that they’ll move either up or down is what, fifty percent? Not if one’s being repaired. Any elevator odds expert will also tell you you’ve got to also consider the possibility that some youngsters may press every single button inside an elevator, throwing off your entire strategy. This, however, is more likely to occur in a hotel or mall where any seasoned elevator gambler knows better than to wager.
The odds of picking the winning elevators in our particular building are higher than most because the elevators stop at the ground floor. Thus there’s no need to calculate (factoring in gravity and all), whether a descending elevator enjoys an inherent advantage over an ascending one. To get to the underground parking levels you’ve got to take another elevator altogether. But seeing as how there are only three underground levels and one elevator to access them, the odds are pretty good you’ll pick the winner, unless of course, it’s being repaired, in which case it’s a push.
A snap shot of any row of elevator floor indicators may tell you where each is at any given moment. What they don’t immediately indicate, however, is whether they’re going up or down. And even when they do, there’s no telling how many people are waiting for the elevators on the floors above.
The Otis Theory
In a matter of mere hours, the surreptitious passage of the US government’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) wiped out some five billion dollars from the online casino, poker, bingo, and sports betting industries. A number of savvy investors saw the crash coming and hedged their bets on the industry’s demise. Many of these same firms are still bearish on the future of the gambling industry. But what they fail to understand is that, like elevators, the online gambling biz too will have its ups and downs, and require occasional repairs and fine tuning. But as long as people prefer elevators to climbing stairs, elevators are not going to disappear anytime soon. And if taxpaying citizens can enjoy the ease and pleasures of playing roulette, blackjack, slots, craps, keno, or whatever online casino game from the comfort of their own home or mobile device, why should they be limited to only land-based casinos and church bingo halls? For God's sake?!
The End is Far
So to answer the question regarding what direction the online gaming industry is headed, one only has to compare today's situation with that of the US's failed prohibition on alcohol in the nineteen twenties and thirties. Just like alcohol (and elevators), the demand for online casino games is only going to continue escalating. (Pun intended.) Opponents can choose to deal with it now and responsibly regulate the industry for everyone's protection (minors, addicts etc.). Or, these anti-online gambling activists can continue climbing the stairs in their futile attempts to defy the forces of nature. Human nature.
Me? I'm betting on the elevators.
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