are graphic warnings too much?

[Fivestar4everMVP]

philippines' department of finance is pushing for graphic warnings against online gambling

the department of finance has conducted research they have weighed the benefits of online gambling against the disadvantages of online gambling and they have concluded that this industry only contributes minimal part to the economy which is why they are pushing for strict regulation or a complete ban of online gambling. obviously gamblers would want to at least be able to gamble even if it is heavily regulated. are graphic warnings across the country too much? has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

I honestly do not understand what you mean by graphic warning, your post would have been more helpful if you are taken a bit of your time to explain what graphic warning is here on the thread so your readers won't have to visit the referenced link just for the sake of finding out what this mean, but anyways, I guess I don't have any choice but to visit the news site to find out what this is..

From what i understand from what you have said, it's obviously clear that the government of Philippines is being selfish to their citizens, reasons being that they are calling for heavy regulation or outright/straight ban of gambling in the entire country simply because they discovered that gambling only contributes minimally to their economy, what this means is that if gambling was to be contributing greatly to their economy, they would have allowed it to reign all over their country regardless of how it affects the citizens, this is a clear indication that they don't actually care about their citizens as much as they claim, they are only fighting for their own personal interests and nothing more.

[₿itcoin]

are graphic warnings across the country too much? has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

The Department of Finance of the Philippines push for graphic warnings for online gambling is not an exaggeration, imo...

DOF research shows that online gambling contributes only 0.37 % to the countrys GDP, which is very insignificant. This means that the social harms may be much greater than the benefits &  this problem cannot be completely ruled out. You know, just like graphic warnings on tobacco packets, they increase awareness of risks, even if they are small. This strategy can work here too. Not only warnings, the DOF is calling for stricter regulations, such as blocking access to minors, tracking the time &  frequency of betting. These are necessary for the peace of society.

I do not deny that there is some room for concern. If the warnings are too extreme or the regulations are too strict, then those who are casual safer gamblers, may be scared off. As a result, they may move to offshore or unregulated sites, where the risk is higher. So we have to be at a tolerant level. Another thing is that just warning is not the solution, just showing a scary picture does not solve the main problem. Along with this, we need education  support systems  treatment systems &  strong regulation

If players &  patients are aware, then this warning strategy will help reduce harm. But it must be combined with smart policies not just giving scary pictures. If there is only punishment &  no solution  , then the matter will become heavy handed

[Porfirii]

I saw them a few weeks ago in a different article and, although I think that we still need the governments' regulatory control to stop the abuses of the industry, in this case it reminds me of the political propaganda we've seen in different countries, which projects a paternalistic figure that controls us for our own sake, but limits our freedom.

[crwth]

I think the government is actually trying to show how much gambling shouldn't be done, and it's probably because the Filipino people don't understand or don't even read the different writings on a specific site for notifications.

People are prone to skipping the important stuff and not reading further, and that's probably why they have irritating graphic warnings to display.

[Dunamisx]

The government have the right to signal a warning on anything they saw to have negative impact on the people, but however, not on this context is this relevant, because they needed to have their freedom to gamble and also make use of any available gambling casino for their satisfaction.

[Gozie51]

has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

Maybe in the Philippines. The news coming out of Philippines concerning gambling seem to be enormous and especially moves by their government to restrict or outright ban of it. But what I think as the challenge there is the financial challenges and corruption from the government. They need to fix that first before trying to limit citizens who run to gambling as source of income. Again, for a gambler to have a very negative behaviour means there are other substances that is added to it like alcohol and drugs.

However to make a graphic warning about gambling depicting a despicable image of a gambler won't stop people from gambling. People are still smoking despite the warnings of the effect of smoking. People know the effect of excessive alcohol intake but they still take it excessively. Habit is one difficult thing to stop, it takes an individual's decision not forcefully.

[Peanutswar]

In the philippines tons of banners and advertisements right there about promoting their casino and as of now there is a law regulating recently that they will take down those casino which is not regulated by the country which is their currently first move and now one of the senators are made to amendment to remove also the banners because its not focus of the people right there and the increase of gambling addiction is rapidly increasing so its a must they need to fought against it and banner is just not enough.

[Satofan44]

I honestly do not understand what you mean by graphic warning, your post would have been more helpful if you are taken a bit of your time to explain what graphic warning is here on the thread so your readers won't have to visit the referenced link just for the sake of finding out what this mean, but anyways, I guess I don't have any choice but to visit the news site to find out what this is..

Read the other posts, people have written about it. It would be similar to how graphic warnings have been introduced to tobacco products, but obviously the placement and type of graphic will be different. Perhaps one of those warning/informative style ones.

From what i understand from what you have said, it's obviously clear that the government of Philippines is being selfish to their citizens, reasons being that they are calling for heavy regulation or outright/straight ban of gambling in the entire country simply because they discovered that gambling only contributes minimally to their economy, what this means is that if gambling was to be contributing greatly to their economy, they would have allowed it to reign all over their country regardless of how it affects the citizens, this is a clear indication that they don't actually care about their citizens as much as they claim, they are only fighting for their own personal interests and nothing more.

This is complete nonsense and backwards argumentation. The only reason that anything is banned at all or under restrictions anywhere, for example smoking, is because the costs of said action outweigh the benefits that it generates. This is how you are supposed to do it. You are not supposed to facilitate activities where the costs outweigh the benefits, this is a guaranteed path to the collapse and bankruptcy of a nation.

has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

Maybe in the Philippines. The news coming out of Philippines concerning gambling seem to be enormous and especially moves by their government to restrict or outright ban of it.

No, the situation is out of control pretty much everywhere. In some places it is worse than in others, but that doesn't change the fact that it is out of control.

But what I think as the challenge there is the financial challenges and corruption from the government. They need to fix that first before trying to limit citizens who run to gambling as source of income. Again, for a gambler to have a very negative behaviour means there are other substances that is added to it like alcohol and drugs.

Corruption can't be fixed it is part of the system, get some education first before you write nonsense like this. The less educated a person is the more they yap about corruption and other hard to solve problems. Meanwhile they can't even change 1 of their own behaviors, useless weaklings.

[wiss19]

There is nothing wrong with implementing regulations or warnings for people to see before they gamble, so that they are at least reminded that gambling can be financially devastating and could be highly addictive, so that those who are about to gamble can at least have their minds refreshed about this, and who knows? This might have at least a minor effect on them. I know that reckless gamblers will most probably ignore such signs and everything, but those who are not yet at that stage but could get there slowly might find those warnings useful if they are shown every time they try to access an online gambling platform.

I wonder what steps they are going to take to keep minors away from gambling and gambling platforms, because almost all online platforms require KYC these days, but they don't ask for it immediately; that's why minors can easily use them until they ask for KYC. So maybe they will make it mandatory to verify KYC before being able to play or even make a deposit.

[Hispo]

✂️

. are graphic warnings across the country too much? has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

I suppose it depends on whom you ask.
In my opinion, it won't change anything, people will continue to gambling in spite of all warnings set by the government and regulators.
For for example the case of cigarettes, here the government forces tobacco companies to include warnings and very graphic pictures on their products in order to discourage people from smoking or consuming nicotine, in spite of that smokers continue to be numerous here in my country and tobacco companies continue to pocket millions of dollars.

The same will happen with gambling and casinos. Also, I believe society under-estimate how clever children and teens are when comes to avoid restrictions in order to access services are products which are forbidden to them. A warning sign won't stop people from gambling. 

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Graphic warning is a form of creating awareness of the harmful effects of gambling addiction, probably to discourage underage gambling and the vulnerability of people falling into addiction. Would that help? I don't think so, people who are still persistent in their gambling attitude will continue no matter any warning they get, and some hard headed addictes won't even stop.  Well, there what they said about implementing other struck measures to help combat minors from gambling, so both implementation combined can help.

[michellee]

Maybe the graphic warning can work for some gamblers and make them realize that gambling can ruin their lives. But some others will not think much about that and will still playing gambling.  If the government have valid data about that, they can make a strict regulation for those who want to gamble. They will not let people gamble easily before they follow the instructions.

The government want to prevent the bad situation that can happen to their people. So they think that heavy regulation can help them reduce gambling addiction.

[$weetne$$]

This is not the first, so many other countries too are beginning to clamp down on casinos for reasons of some societal impacts they suppose are not healthy for the society, the issue with this is that they may not be considering the behavioral pattern of some of these gamblers that is bringing such effects on them, rather the focus has so much been channeled on attacking the casino alone, although I know that some casinos actually does have their irregularities that should be regulated but they should not bear all the blame for the behavioural patterns noticed amongst some of the citizens who has refused to be cautious enough about their habits.

[rodskee]

I think the government is actually trying to show how much gambling shouldn't be done, and it's probably because the Filipino people don't understand or don't even read the different writings on a specific site for notifications.

People are prone to skipping the important stuff and not reading further, and that's probably why they have irritating graphic warnings to display.

there’s definitely some lack of reading comprehension in the country it’s not just people ignore reading they also don’t understand the depth of what they just read so i understand the point that graphics should be done to help them understand better

[libert19]

Graphic warnings do help. I remember my manager from my old work who stopped smoking due to the graphic image shown on the pack of cigarettes.

That’s shocking. So it does work. Some people can look at graphics of lungs destroyed and still buy packs and packs of cigarettes anyway.

Depends on how addicted one is (whether to cigarettes or to any other thing), the more deep rooted the addiction, harder it becomes to get rid of it, I mean that's just how addiction works; one could be aware of disastrous consequences addiction causes yet find oneself helpless against it.

Warning signs are good for those who don't have deep rooted addictions (possibly, the manager's case), and those who haven't started in the first place.

[Mahanton]

has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

Maybe in the Philippines. The news coming out of Philippines concerning gambling seem to be enormous and especially moves by their government to restrict or outright ban of it. But what I think as the challenge there is the financial challenges and corruption from the government. They need to fix that first before trying to limit citizens who run to gambling as source of income. Again, for a gambler to have a very negative behaviour means there are other substances that is added to it like alcohol and drugs.

However to make a graphic warning about gambling depicting a despicable image of a gambler won't stop people from gambling. People are still smoking despite the warnings of the effect of smoking. People know the effect of excessive alcohol intake but they still take it excessively. Habit is one difficult thing to stop, it takes an individual's decision not forcefully.

Many countries have started reacting strongly to online gambling because of how quickly it’s spreading and how deep the social damage can get unlike traditional casinos that are easier to regulate online gambling runs almost everywhere it’s available 24 hours a day and accessible through a phone this makes addiction grow faster and harder to control. The Philippines has become a major hotspot for this issue the mix of weak regulation financial struggle and corruption made online gambling more harmful there than in many other places some people see it as a way out of poverty but most end up falling deeper into debt so the government’s reaction is both political and social they want to show control even if the deeper issues like unemployment and corruption remain unsolved.

Putting shocking ads or graphic warnings won’t really stop it though the same way it hasn’t stopped smoking or alcohol abuse people know the risks but habits are stronger than fear only real education and economic improvement can change that if people have better jobs and less stress they won’t turn to gambling as easily. So yes the reactions may look extreme but they come from the frustration of a growing problem governments can ban sites or put restrictions but until the root causes like poverty and lack of opportunity are fixed people will keep looking for hope in gambling even when they know it rarely ends well.

[Satofan44]

I suppose it depends on whom you ask.
In my opinion, it won't change anything, people will continue to gambling in spite of all warnings set by the government and regulators.

For for example the case of cigarettes, here the government forces tobacco companies to include warnings and very graphic pictures on their products in order to discourage people from smoking or consuming nicotine, in spite of that smokers continue to be numerous here in my country and tobacco companies continue to pocket millions of dollars.

You are not supposed to have an opinion based on anecdotal evidence or observations, you are supposed to look at the data from research that relates to this. Studies demonstrate that it does have an effect, even if we don't know yet the optimal way to create graphical warnings. This is a low cost measure and there is no reason why it should not be added into the measures. I assume it works similarly in other aspects such as gambling.

This review found graphics exceeding 50% of packs were the most common ratio for GHWs, and identified an ongoing reliance on negatively framed messages and limited source attribution. Perceived harms and quit intentions were increased by GHWs. However, wear-out effects were observed regardless of GHW format indicating the length of time warnings are present in market warrants ongoing research attention to identify wear out points. Quit intentions and perceived harm were also combined into a cognitive response measure, limiting the evaluation of the effects of each GHW format variables in those cases. In addition, alternative GHW package inserts were found to be a complimentary approach to traditional GHWs.
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10810-z

The same will happen with gambling and casinos. Also, I believe society under-estimate how clever children and teens are when comes to avoid restrictions in order to access services are products which are forbidden to them. A warning sign won't stop people from gambling. 

The goal of a warning is not to stop someone from gambling, it is not a restriction measure it is an education measure.

Depends on how addicted one is (whether to cigarettes or to any other thing), the more deep rooted the addiction, harder it becomes to get rid of it, I mean that's just how addiction works; one could be aware of disastrous consequences addiction causes yet find oneself helpless against it.

Warning signs are good for those who don't have deep rooted addictions (possibly, the manager's case), and those who haven't started in the first place.

The measure is not designed for those have are already deeply addicted. Stop dismissing the measure by evaluating its utility in regards to things that it was not designed to do at all.

[libert19]

...The Philippines has become a major hotspot for this issue the mix of weak regulation financial struggle and corruption made online gambling more harmful there than in many other places some people see it as a way out of poverty but most end up falling deeper into debt so the government’s reaction is both political and social they want to show control even if the deeper issues like unemployment and corruption remain unsolved.

Even if other issues remain unsolved, I am all in for these measures, if these measures save people from digging themselves a hole, what's wrong with it?

Putting shocking ads or graphic warnings won’t really stop it though the same way it hasn’t stopped smoking or alcohol abuse people know the risks but habits are stronger than fear only real education and economic improvement can change that...

I consider these warning signs educational.

Depends on how addicted one is (whether to cigarettes or to any other thing), the more deep rooted the addiction, harder it becomes to get rid of it, I mean that's just how addiction works; one could be aware of disastrous consequences addiction causes yet find oneself helpless against it.

Warning signs are good for those who don't have deep rooted addictions (possibly, the manager's case), and those who haven't started in the first place.

The measure is not designed for those have are already deeply addicted. Stop dismissing the measure by evaluating its utility in regards to things that it was not designed to do at all.

Where did I dismiss?

Edit: I misunderstood, nvm.

[summonerrk]

philippines' department of finance is pushing for graphic warnings against online gambling

the department of finance has conducted research they have weighed the benefits of online gambling against the disadvantages of online gambling and they have concluded that this industry only contributes minimal part to the economy which is why they are pushing for strict regulation or a complete ban of online gambling. obviously gamblers would want to at least be able to gamble even if it is heavily regulated. are graphic warnings across the country too much? has online gambling gotten so worse that it warrants this much reaction?

read news here

However, if the population is addicted to gambling, the government can't do anything about it. Firstly, because avid Filipino gamblers are already playing and won't be ready to give up this hobby. They'll install VPNs and visit online casino sites secretly, especially those that don't require KYC.
Therefore, any government apparatus that wants to ban gambling is naive politicians who should understand that the population's addiction to gambling is a complex problem.

[bubilas]

They'll install VPNs and visit online casino sites secretly, especially those that don't require KYC.
Therefore, any government apparatus that wants to ban gambling is naive politicians who should understand that the population's addiction to gambling is a complex problem.

This is exactly the situation in the country where I recently lived, because online gambling is banned there, and the population doesn't care at all. They find many different casinos online and ways to top up their deposits at these casinos, and the government has absolutely no influence on this habit, because it's a complete workaround, and it turns out that if someone wants to gamble or bet, it's impossible to stop them.