Hey.
I want to bring to attention an issue that is fairly close to my heart as I have to (ex-)close friends who suffer from gambling addiction. So here I go:
There is literally no mention of problem gambling on your site or really anywhere and I feel absolutely zero measures are taken to prevent players on your site from literally ruining their lives - and I think it's irresponsible. Now, I gamble myself (and win at it), so I'm arguing against my own interest here, I do understand this. But I want to play and win against players who are in control of their mental state at the least and ideally have fun and only play with money they're comfortably losing. And I understand that it sometimes is not easy to differentiate between problem gamblers and people who are just temporarily tilting. But on your site, you are in the rather unique position where you get more insight into players' minds via the chat box. And without naming names, there are some
extremely clear cut cases of gambling addicts and other mental issues that would get these players banned on every other (regulated) site I have the advantage of playing on as a non-US person.
I have seen people say they want to commit suicide because of their losses on the site, people genuinely and straight up confessing that they are gambling addicts and wish they could stop and people genuinely complaining they aren't able to buy food because of gambling losses. (I can provide screenshots for each if needed).
Now, I have brought these issues up in chat multiple times and got the response that people can self-exclude if they so wish. But as you all know, gambling addiction clouds your mind as much as drug use does. These people are
not of clear mind and unable to make rational decisions.
Because of this, in any regulated market, the site takes
some kind of responsibility to protect the players on their site. I know libertarian views are big on this site, and I agree in large parts - but in this case, it's just the moral thing to do.
Therefore, here are my suggestions:
- Please add a "problem gambling" section to your site, there are many templates for this on the internet. This is the absolute minimum you can and should do - sometimes this alone helps for these people if they have a small window of clarity.
- Inform yourself about prohibitive measures that can be taken.
https://scholar.google.de/scholar?q=Problem+Gambling+protection&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart Here are some studies on it, this one I can especially recommend:
https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=980572465991403;res=IELFSC- Engage with these clear cut cases privately and spend some time to advise them. You have the data to show them a clear picture of their habitual, compulsive gambling, tell them bluntly and try to convince them to get help.
- And if this doesn't help, exclude them from playing on your site. I know this option is limited because people can just open new accounts, but this does not mean that you can or should completely waive your responsibilities when it comes to this issue.
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I know that excluding players from your site may seem like a bad business model. But when you look at the larger picture, I actually think it isn't. The fact that online poker is banned in the US is largely to the fact that it is unregulated. Issues like these give anti-online poker factions so much ammunition that could easily be prevented.
I hope I was able to somewhat change your current positions and apology for the lengthy post.
Have a great day.
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