How Easy Is It For CSIG To Fabricate? VERY!

My job is to watch Sheldon Adelson’s Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling and report on the various myths, half-truths, and outright fabrications they use to persuade people that online gambling is bad, evil, dangerous, and in need of extinction.  In the 14 months I’ve watched, I have NEVER seen a blatant, dishonest, and full-of-shit presentation as today’s post.

It’s a 10-page pdf file of a PowerPoint presentation that takes forever to load.  If you want to see it, click here and be prepared to wait – apparently, they don’t know how to do file compression to save time for downloads (don’t these people understand how the Internet works?  Oh, wait…). 

The summary goes like this:

• Slide 1 – How easy is it for kids to gamble online?  VERY!
• Slide 2 – Demo on how to load an app that SIMULATES a casino from iTunes
• Slides 3-4 – Discussion as to the age restrictions for the game and how to download with password from iTunes Store account.
• Slides 6-7 – Demo on how to get free coins from Facebook signup and more about the bright colors of the game and how easy it is to play.
• Slides 8-10 – Explanation as to how it’s possible to buy more coins to keep playing the game.

Yeah, that’s it.  Of course, they “hype” it up a bit, using Caesar’s Slots as their example (how convenient), with this clincher:

Players are then encouraged to purchase digital gaming coins.  In essence, real money is now being used to gamble online.

Well, bullshit.

First – gambling is placing a wager in the hopes/expectation of winning something of value, such as money or prizes.  Can’t win shit here, Shelly.  It’s a FUCKING GAME, like Candy Crush or Words of Wonder.  This is NOT gambling.

Second – it’s not as simple as you showed.  Yes, the child needs to have an iTunes Store account – WHICH THEY CANNOT SET UP THEMSELVES – a PARENT must create the account for a minor.  Once they have an account they can download whatever game they want (provided it’s OK with the parents – restrictions are easy to establish). 

So, in essence, a kid can’t download a casino game if parents say no!  Gosh, that sounds completely different than what CSIG said. 

These people are pathetic. 

PS – I’m SURE they received permission from Caesar’s to use their game, logo, and screen shots in this presentation.  Right?

Clowns.