Online
gambling expert Agami talks about online casinos legislation
With the recent
announcement of a top online casinos firm’s closure in Costa
Rica, SBG Global's Eduardo Agami, an online casinos expert and
advocate, cannot be a happy man. As head of the Costa Rican
Association of Sportsbooks, one of Agami's biggest concerns
throughout the online casinos ordeal has been the loss of over a
thousand local jobs in the online casinos industry.
"It is very important to realize that for a poverty-stricken
country, the loss of 2000 jobs soon turns into 6000 when you
consider the families (total households) affected," Agami told
an online casinos news website during a trip to Costa Rica this
week.
Agami spoke candidly with the online casinos news site regarding
pending legislation to ban online casinos in the United States
and the current situation involving the online casinos firm from
Costa Rica, which closed recently after indictments were handed
down against the online casinos company last month.
Eduardo Agami considered the troubled online casinos firm’s
founder, Gary Kaplan, a close personal friend. Kaplan is
believed to have fled to Spain, based on a report filed in La
Nacion.
"Gary would go door to door of the assemblies (in Costa Rica)
looking for regulation," Agami disclosed. "He was looking for
legalization way back when. Sure they (the online casinos firm)
could have been more careful bringing the operation out onto US
soil but (the online casinos firm’s) current management should
have responded more aggressively (to the indictment). They shut
down briefly then regroup. They are not standing up to the
challenge and this can send a negative message throughout the
(online casinos) industry."
In regard to current legislation to ban online gambling, Agami
feels that there needs to be a compromise between the online
gambling industry and the U.S. government.
"How do you get what you want without compromising and meeting
some type of balance?" he asks.
Agami spoke to a gentleman representing the United States
Department of Treasury at one internet gambling conference. That
individual suggested it would go a long way if online gambling
companies were to at least send out 1099 statements for each of
their customers showing how much was bet, won or lost during a
given year. In essence, the online gambling companies would be
in compliance. It is the individual customer's obligation to
then report all taxes.
When asked by Reuters news service about the concerns over
addiction to online gambling, Mr. Agami posed another question:
What about the addiction to eBay?
"You are buying potatoes that like Richard Nixon. Is this not
impulsive behavior? eBay is available to anyone that has access
to a credit card and these transactions are not coded."
Then there is the noted hypocrisy associated with the state
lotteries and why politicians do not consider the playing of a
lottery as gambling.
"A guy blows his $100,000 life savings on the state lottery,
gambling on the chance for a big win. He ends up losing.”
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