Free Games Being Played by Underaged Players

April 18, 2009 | News Category: Online Casinos

0 Comments Almost all online casinos offer free games to potential players in order to give them a taste of what they will receive if they become paying players. The free games also encourage attract potential customers to the online casino sites, and give players the opportunity to try out games they might never have played before.

Although online casinos are conscientious when it comes to age verification for players who wish to sign up with their online casinos and play for real money, they are somewhat less concerned about age verification for those who wish to play their free games.

Those that are opposed to online gambling because of concerns regarding problem gambling and underage gambling, are especially concerned about the free games that are offered. Many online casinos do not even ask players who are playing free games to log in to their site. Players simply select the option to play free games and begin playing. Some do ask that players do a basic sign-up formality, and may ask the age of the player. Of course, it is easy for a teenager to fill in an incorrect age.

It is not illegal for underage players to play the free games since no money passes hands. It is also not illegal for online casinos to offer these games without asking for age verification. There are fears that teenagers who become addicted to casino gambling before they are of age, are more likely to become players with gambling addictions when they are older and legally allowed to play in casinos.

It is likely that when the United States regulates online gambling that one of the important issues will be age verification, which will probably also include verification for free games in order to prevent later gambling addictions as much as possible.

For those online casinos that wish to help prevent teenagers gambling, and who wish to give the anti-gambling family groups less fuel for their arguments, it would be a wise move to institute stricter age verification for their online casinos for all areas of play - both free play and real money play.

Parents should be aware of the games that their children are playing and should not let them use the Internet without any adult supervision. There are parents who are not particularly Internet savvy, and this may be a problem in their homes, which is another reason why as much protection as possible should come from the online casinos themselves. There are many non-casino online games that are appropriate for teenagers and younger children.

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