Gambling and social gambling: an exploratory study of young people's perceptions and behavior

Background and aims: Gambling-type games that do not involve the spending of money (e.g., social and (demo) [demonstration] gambling games, gambling-like activities within video games) have been accused in both the legal and psychological literature of increasing minors’ propensity towards prohibited forms of gambling thus prompting calls for gambling regulation to capture address such games and subject them to age restrictions. However, there is still a shortage of empirical data that considers how young people experience monetary and non-monetary gambling, and whether they are sufficiently aware of the differences. Methods: Data was collected from 23 qualitative focus groups carried out with 200 young people aged between 14 and 19 years old in schools based in London and Kent. As the study was exploratory in nature, thematic analysis was adopted in order to capture how pupils categorise, construct, and react to gambling-like activities in comparison to monetary forms of gambling without the constrains of a predetermined theoretical framework

The Continuing Evolution of Criminal Constitutional Law in State Courts

Although early state constitutions were important and ambitious documents for their time, the development of state constitutional law stagnated after the drafting and adoption of the federal constitution., As the doctrine of federalism has resurfaced, however, states have begun to turn to their constitutions to grant more protection for their citizens. The states\u27 criminal constitutional laws have changed significantly and continue to evolve today. In the 1960s, the Warren Court expanded basic protections for criminal defendants by finding that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. The Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment by the states. The Court extended the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to criminal defendants, held that this privilege also requires police to give warnings to suspects prior to custodial interrogations, and applied the double jeopardy clause to states. The Court extended the Sixth Amendment to give criminal defendants further rights: to be represented by an attorney, to be confronted by the witnesses against them,o to have a speedy trial, to have a trial by an impartial jury, and to have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in favor of the defense. During this period, states hardly had time to consider what protections their own constitutions might give to criminal defendants because the Supreme Court was expanding the federal rights so rapidly to citizens accused of state-law crimes

The Effectiveness of Self-Regulatory Gambling Advertising Rules on the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons (UK based study)

The liberalisation of the gambling advertising facilitated in the UK by the Gambling Act 2005 led to a natural but phenomenal overall expansion of gambling advertising. While any claims that such gambling marketing may lead to harm continue to be strongly contested, it is at least implicitly accepted that some vulnerable persons, including minors, may require specific protection as mandated by the statutory licensing objective. In the UK this is aimed to be achieved by ensuring that gambling advertisements are ‘socially responsible’ and by the timing/placement restrictions. Compliance is monitored by the ASA that also publishes standards-setting Codes and adjudicates on complaints. There is, however, a paucity of independent research that evaluates whether the practical application of the high-level rules is sufficiently aligned with the third licensing objective. The paper provides a systematic analysis of the ASA adjudications and draws from findings collected from minors during focus groups carried out as part of the author’s PhD thesis. It argues that while the existing enforcement framework and self-regulatory principles go a long way in restraining the industry from acute exploitation they are not sufficiently definite to eliminate the possibility of emotive appeal, do not encompass all advertising techniques, are too focused on technical approach at the expense of a more in-depth assessment of the potential wider impact of the image portrayed, and still rely on the transmission theory that does not necessarily correspond to how minors construct and react to such advertisements. Presents insight from minors’ views and suggests practical recommendations

A sieve that does hold a little water - Gambling Advertising and Protection of the Vulnerable in the UK

This article analyses the law of gambling advertising in Great Britain, highlighting the limits of co-regulation against the third statutory objective[1] considering the empirical research literature on the impact of advertising on problem gambling[2], pointing to gaps in the protection of children and vulnerable persons and making recommendations. Our argument is that the risk assessment should not be made purely from the perspective of the population as a whole but from the viewpoint of those who are negatively affected by gambling. We argue that there is a fundamental conflict between the objective of liberalising gambling advertising and the protection of children and other vulnerable persons and that more should be done to ensure their protection. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is currently reviewing Social Responsibility Measures, including the impacts of gambling advertising and the protection of children, so we hope this article can make a timely contribution to the debate

Reverse Engineering of Software for Interoperability and Analysis

The rapid evolution of computer technology raises difficult questions about the scope of protection the law should afford computer programs. Computer programs are uniquely different from traditional literary works protected by the copyright laws, because they have machine-like properties, are primarily functional in nature, and frequently are distributed in a form that humans cannot read. Despite these differences, however, computer programs have received protection under the copyright paradigm along with literary and artistic works. The United States historically has employed a highly protectionist approach to computer programs, as evidenced by early software infringement decisions in which courts slowly expanded protection by prohibiting copying of not only the literal or tangible aspects of computer programs but also the nonliteral elements. Recently, some courts have made an underlying shift in their interpretation of legal doctrine and policy from a broad standard of infringement that favors software copyright owners to a more narrow standard

Gambling and Social Gambling: An Exploratory study of young people's perceptions and behaviour

Background and aims: Gambling-type games that do not involve the spending of money (e.g., social and ‘demo’ [demonstration] gambling games, gambling-like activities within video games) have been accused in both the legal and psychological literature of increasing minors’ propensity towards prohibited forms of gambling thus prompting calls for gambling regulation to capture address such games and subject them to age restrictions. However, there is still a shortage of empirical data that considers how young people experience monetary and non-monetary gambling, and whether they are sufficiently aware of the differences. Methods: Data was collected from 23 qualitative focus groups carried out with 200 young people aged between 14 and 19 years old in schools based in London and Kent. As the study was exploratory in nature, thematic analysis was adopted in order to capture how pupils categorise, construct, and react to gambling-like activities in comparison to monetary forms of gambling without the constrains of a predetermined theoretical framework. Results: Despite many similarities, substantial differences between monetary and non-monetary forms of gambling were revealed in terms of pupils’ engagement, motivating factors, strengths, intensity, and associated emotions. Pupils made clear differentiation between non-monetary and monetary forms of gambling and no inherent transition of interest from one to the other was observed among participants. Only limited evidence emerged of ‘demo’ games being used as a practice ground for future gambling. Conclusion: For the present sample, non-monetary forms of gambling presented a different proposition to the real-money gambling with no inherent overlap between the two. For some the ‘softer’ form minimised the temptation to try other forms of gambling that they were not legally allowed to engage in, but ‘demo’ games may attract those who already want to gamble. Policy implications: Regulators must recognise and balance these two conflicting aspects