Get Rich Quick View Makes Gambling Popular Among South Africans
South Africans are likely to spend $1 billion this year on gambling
activities, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
Much of the money spent on gambling will come from poor people who view
gambling as their one hope to strike it rich. South Africa's poor typically
earn as little as $24 per month, and nearly one-third of the nation's
residents are unemployed.
Some residents also feel they're more likely to win big while gambling than
to land a job.
"For South Africans, gambling is also a novelty, and one about which
undereducated people are likely to have dangerous misconceptions, such as
that gambling is a good investment," said Peter Collins, the
executive director of the National Center for the Study of Gambling at the
University of Cape Town.
Americans Face Problem Gambling Issues
Since 1975 there has been a vast increase in opportunities for Americans
to gamble, creating a corresponding growth in the number of Americans
suffering from gambling problems, HealthScoutNews reported on Monday.
The number of states offering lotteries has grown from 13 in 1975 to 37
today. Plus, there is some form of legalized gambling in nearly every state
of the union, including riverboat gambling and casinos.
This easy access to gambling has boosted the number of people
participating. Lotteries, for example, once attracted about 24 percent of
the population, but that figure has more than doubled to 52 percent.
"In 1983, the year our gambling telephone hotline started, we had 600
calls from people wanting our help," said Ed Looney, executive director for
the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey. "Last year, we had
20,000."
Looney also attributes the increase in problem gambling to a growth in
the number of gambling Web sites available. "In 1995, there was one site;
now there are over 1,000," he said.
Sept. 11 Terrorist Attack--What Will It Bring?
Researchers at In-Stat/MDR provide a look at what may be the short and
long-term ramifications of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The research
firm acknowledge that there are no easy answers, but as part of a newly
released white paper, the group has attempted to outline the current
economic issues and present logical outlook scenarios covering the
e-business infrastructure.
For example, an economic slowdown that was becoming apparent before the
events of Sept. 11 has been exacerbated since then, creating
greater fears that a global recession will occur, In-Stat said.
At the same time, In-Stat holds hope for the economy recovering,
especially as the United States begins appropriating some $40 to $50 billion
to be used in the process of rescue, recovery and rebuilding.
The In-Stat white paper can be accessed online at
www.instat.com/infoalert/2001/alrt2001-32.htm
Who Are Online Gamers?
Broadband service provider Speakeasy.net is teaming with Valve
Software to survey who online gamers are and what kinds of hardware and
Internet configurations they use.
The survey was launched Wednesday and will continue for the next few
months. More than 300,000 gamers have taken part in the survey so far.
Since the survey launched, a few points have already become apparent:
- In terms of Internet connectivity, more than 60 percent of those
surveyed said their connection was 256kbps or faster, while 20 percent
indicated that they had near T-1 speeds. These results indicate that online
gamers, who are increasingly playing 3-D games, are eschewing dial-up
connectivity for their online playing needs.
- More than half of all survey participants have juiced up their computers
by installing between 256 and 512 MB RAM. The average CPU speed for all
survey participants ranges between 700-800Mhz.
- Results also show that the most popular video card is Nvidia's
GeForce2 chip, although the GeForce3 chip was released earlier this
spring.
The survey can be reviewed online at http://valve.speakeasy.net/survey