By Simon Collins, Director, Cashcade Ltd.
I’m proud to be helping build a new modern gambling industry by taking advantage of the opportunities created as the web becomes part of everyday UK life. And I’m pleased to be building a responsible, profitable company that conforms with the UK’s stringent regulations.
Also, I’m happy to be part of a business that has reinvented the classic bingo experience for the 21st century, thereby introducing a fun pastime to a whole new generation. So, naturally, when I read stories in the press that the online gambling industry is in fact run by criminals, gangsters and worse, I wonder – why?
Take, for example, this recent article in the Daily Telegraph, entitled, ‘Terrorists Launder Cash Through Online Gambling’. The article states how, ‘the internet had been used to raise funds for terrorists in Afghanistan including the use of on-line gambling sites to launder cash.’ Now while I don’t doubt that, like any business, there are a few unscrupulous operators around the world, it hardly seems like objective journalism to take a single industry and link it with global terrorism – with no further clarification! I should imagine that terrorists also drive cars but that doesn’t mean to say the management of Jeep are somehow in cahoots with Al-Qaeda!
It’s not hard to imagine the influences at work here. Gambling combined with the internet is a scary mixture for some. Despite being a long-standing part of British life, the gambling industry still has a ‘smoky-room’ image. Here at Cashcade we believe we are helping change that perception for the better by creating gambling environments that are safe, hospitable and fun for everyone. Entirely dog-end free too!
But for some the internet will always be a dark, dangerous place. A view that may…
…inform their opinions about anything online – including gambling. This Daily Mail article, for instance, claims there has been a rapid growth in the number of problem gamblers because of, ‘Labour’s lax gambling laws’. Once again, I have to ask, is this good journalism? Any online gambling operator knows the reality is very different. The Gambling Commission is anything but lax! And the industry goes to great lengths to spot problematic behaviour and help the people involved through organisations such as GamCare. Which is probably why the rest of the world is seeking to emulate the UK’s progressive approach.
The Perfect Storm blog is here to try and tell the positive story about our industry – one that we believe should be seen as a great British success story. Here at Cashcade we focus very hard on giving our customers a safe, enjoyable experience. A quick look at our community pages confirms that our one million Foxy Bingo customers are a young, fun-loving bunch who enjoy bingo as an innocent and sociable pastime. Not a terrorist in sight!
And as the Foxy Bingo brand continues to grow and our industry matures, we recognise the importance of demonstrating to the world that we are responsible executives in a professional business. For example we were delighted this year to be a lead partner of Comic Relief, giving £150k along with a big promotional push. Or the big game we ran for Children in Need where players could win £20,000 with all the money spent on tickets going to the charity.
I very much hope opinions about our industry will slowly change. Even The Daily Mail might come round. Despite its protestations the newspaper has recently joined our business, launching its own Bingo site. And if Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells can join the fun, then surely there’s hope for everyone else!
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The Daily Mail and good journalism are two words that should never be used in the same sentence. You have to admire their hypocrisy, condemning on the one hand, after offering free scratch cards to win money (with no age restrictions) for years. Then after the whole super casino thing and the closure of their original site, they come back and launch another online gambling property.
The Telegraph is no better, it likes to keep it’s reader’s scared and on edge (like all the press.) IT will put nonsense like that out without actually giving any depth to the comment or mentioning that online companies have strict legislation aimed at tackling laundering. Not to mention that laundering is just as likely to be done by fraudsters here in the UK as it is by terrorists, if not more so.
Best thing is to avoid the papers, they’re becoming more and more desperate to hang on to their dwindling readers as time goes on, you can’t trust them as far as you can throw them…
Newspapers like to create moral panic; it does after all sell newspapers. They are not adverse to using whatever means possible to sell their ‘chip paper’, offering bingo, scratchcards, diets, kiss and tells, scantily clad ladies or for that matter any other means to get their message across. They can ‘turn on a tanner’ too, if it suits – the whole sorry Jade Goody story a classic example, Ms Goody went from sinner to saint in under a year – Michael Barrymore went from saint to sinner just as quickly as I recall.
The general public are all given daily doses of what they should and shouldn’t be doing, not only from the press but the government too. At the moment we are being bombarded with swine flu propaganda to take our eye of the global economic crisis ball. I don’t believe that it is only the gaming industry that has been demonised, people are being preached at about everything that they do that gives a little enjoyment, from a simple glass of wine, to the petrol they put in their car.
However the general public do have their own minds (well pretty much anyway), and those that enjoy online gambling are not going to be put off by the likes of the Telegraph or the Mail getting on their holier than thou soap box. If we need to see an example of criminality at work we do not need to look any further than our own television screens when the news comes on, what will it be today I wonder…. Pension funds, banks, expenses claims, second homes, war? Come on Simon don’t take it personally, they are only picking on gambling because they don’t have the gumption to tackle the real gangsters.
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[edited by Admin - duplicate text removed]
………. sorry cut and paste went a bit silly!
Oh dear, the daily mail. I remember the daily mail running massive articles on cannabis users during the de-classification period, always picking the case studies of those who tried a tiny bit of cannabis and went on to become a crack fiend, highly suggesting that the whole of Britain would be turned into a class A drug dependent state because of the decision to.
It’s like anything in life; some people have compulsive, addictive personalities. I for one enjoy the occasional drink, doesn’t mean I’m an alcoholic or that we should ban alcohol from society, same goes for gambling, we shouldn’t ban gambling for the small percentage that have a problem. And yes, some organisations do work hard to combat gambling addition which is often overlooked, those stories don’t make the news though. It’s the British Press after all. We want doom, gloom, stories that scare the crap out of us.
Let’s be fair, gambling has never had a great reputation, always up there with sex, drugs, and violence (if media is to be believed). But today it is less of a taboo I believe. Going are the days when people associate gambling with seedy, smoky bookmakers. Today people are realising that they can place bets on almost anything from the comfort of their own home, which really is opening up gambling to a diverse range of people.
What’s more, bingo has really opened up the female market, and is something the UK has excelled in with some great bingo sites including Foxy Bingo.
In relation to terrorism, money laundering happens everywhere, and it was certainly happening before the internet, let alone online gambling sites. It’s really up to governments and banks to provide better solutions to the problem, not the operators.
I believe that general opinions ARE changing (slowly), and will continue to do so as the industry grows.
I don’t agree that bingo has a seedy association at all. If anything historically bingo is perceived to be the haunt of the elderly pensioner or middle aged mum smoking her way through her bingo game. Luckily Foxy Bingo et al has done much to reverse this socially constructed image and has brought a youthful vibrancy to the game, attracting not only a more diverse customer base but a whole new perception of who the typical bingo player is.