Online Casinos Unjustly Slurred by Focus On the Family

Doesn't this mean that regulation, which is so effective in other countries preventing underage play, might be a better answer?

Focus on the Family has campaigned extensively against any and all bills supporting the regulation of online casinos, stating that gambling is a pernicious threat to children nationwide. But, upon reading the radical religious group's website, it becomes clear that Focus and their mythical gambling analyst Chad Hills arrive at this conclusion without empirical evidence and mostly as a matter of faith.

In a scary article posted at Focus on the Family, Hills (or whoever writes in the uncredentialed, imaginary figure's name) tells a shocking story of a child hooked on gambling through penny-ante poker at age nine, then asserts there are millions of children hooked on gambling right now. The logical and scientific fallacies inherent in Hills' writing are so numerous that it's appalling to think some believe his tales.

First, to take an apocryphal story and then apply it to the entire U.S. population is absurd. Where is the evidence that "millions" suffer as the dubious Jerry Prosapio has? There isn't even a second case discussed.

Figures from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Risk Survey of Youth are quoted, showing that four of five adolescents have gambled in the past year. Without even delving into the fact that the Annenberg Center recommends using guidance and education rather than law and behavior control as responses to childhood issues, let's examine this number.

Does this mean that eighty percent of adolescents have registered and played at online casinos? If so, then the legal bans supported by Focus are doing an extremely poor job of controlling the problem. Doesn't this mean that regulation, which is so effective in other countries preventing underage play, might be a better answer?

Or perhaps that eighty percent simply includes all those kids who said, " I bet you won't tell Susie you like her!" Is a positive response to the question, "Have you bet in the last year?" to mean that we have a nation of obsessive underage gamblers? That is quite a logical leap.

Furthermore, is that percentage significant? Can it be shown that the numbers were different in 1970, or 1930, or 1800? Gambling is as old as civilization, and yet somehow, despite the horrors portrayed by Focus, generations gamble while progressing through their normal lives, working, loving, and living.

For an organization that likes to cloak its opinions in scientific research and evidence, Focus on the Family is shockingly short of actual facts. After all, even Chad Hills is a figment of the imagination, designed to sound authoritative as a "gaming analyst." Perhaps if science were truly respected by this group, more responsible pronouncements would be made. But then the issue is people who believe fossils aren't real and man coexisted with dinosaurs.