Computer Hacking Essay

Abstract: Recent discussions of computer ‘hacking’ make explicit reference to the disproportionate involvement of juveniles in this form of computer crime. While criminal justice, computer security, public and popular reï ¬â€šections on hacking seldom refer to formal criminological analyses of youth offending, they nonetheless offer a range of explanations for the over-representation of young people amongst computer hackers. Such accounts of hacking can be seen to converge with criminological analyses, by stressing a range of causal factors related to gender psychology, adolescent moral development, family dysfunction and peer-group and subcultural association. The homologies between ‘lay’, ‘administrative’, ‘expert’, ‘popular’ and criminological discourses, it is suggested, offer considerable scope for developing a critical, academically-informed, and policyoriented debate on young people’s participation in computer crim e. It has been noted that ‘youthfulness’ or ‘being a teenager’ appears as ‘a constant source of fascination and concern for politicians, media commentators and academic analysts’ (Muncie 1999, p.2), not least when involvement in supposedly ‘criminal’, ‘deviant’ and ‘anti-social’ activities is concerned. Whenever anxieties erupt about new threats to the moral and social order, ‘youth’ are seldom far away from the line-up of society’s ‘usual suspects’. Society’s perennial fascination with ‘youth and crime’ has itself become the object of sociological and criminological analysis, furnishing numerous explorations of the ways in which young people and their cultural commitments have become the ‘folk devils’ in successive waves of ‘moral panics’ about crime and disorder (Young 1971; Cohen 1972; Hall et al. 1978; Pearson 1983; Hay 1995; Sp ringhall 1998). Since the 1990s, academic commentators have observed how the Internet has emerged as a new locus of criminal activity that has become the object of public and political anxieties, sometimes leading to over-reaction (Thomas and Loader 2000, p.8; Littlewood 2003). Yet again, the category of ‘youth’ has ï ¬ gured centrally in discussions of the threat, especially in relation to ‘computer hacking’, the unauthorised access to and manipulation of computer systems. Politicians, law enforcement ofï ¬ cials, computer security experts and journalists have identiï ¬ ed ‘hacking’ as a form of criminal and deviant behaviour closely associated with ‘teenagers’ (see, inter alia, Bowker 1999; DeMarco 2001; Verton 2002). This association has been cemented in the realm of popular cultural representations, with Hollywood ï ¬ lms such as Wargames (1983) and Hackers (1995) constructing the hacker as a quintessentially teenage miscreant (Levi 2001, pp.46–7). While hacking in general has garnered considerable attention from academics working in the emergent ï ¬ eld of ‘cybercrime’ studies (see Taylor 1999, 2000, 2003; Thomas 2000), and some attention has been given to questions of youth (see Furnell 2002), few connections are made with the rich and extensive criminological literature of delinquency studies. On the other hand, those specialising in the study of youth crime and delinquency have largely neglected this apparently new area of juvenile offending (for an exception, see Fream and Skinner 1997). The aim of this article is not to offer such a new account of hacking as ‘juvenile delinquency’; nor is it to contest or ‘deconstruct’ the public and popular association between youth and computer crime. Rather, the article aims to map out the different modes of reasoning by which the purported involvement of juveniles in hacking is explained across a range of ofï ¬ cial, ‘expert’ and public discourses. In other words, it aims to reconstruct the ‘folk aetiology’ by which different commentators seek to account for youth involvement in hacking. Substantively, I suggest that the kinds of accounts offered in fact map clearly onto the existing explanatory repertoires comprising the criminological canon. Implicit within most non-academic and/or non-criminological accounts of teenage hacking are recognisable criminological assumptions relating, for example, to adolescent psychological disturbance, familial breakdown, peer inï ¬â€šuence and subcultural association. Drawing out the latent or implicit criminological assumptions in these accounts of teenage hacking will help, I suggest, to gain both greater critical purchase upon their claims, and to introduce academic criminology to a set of substantive issues in youth offending that have thus far largely escaped sustained scholarly attention. The article begins with a brief discussion of deï ¬ nitional disputes about computer hacking, arguing in particular that competing constructions can be viewed as part of a process in which deviant labels are applied by authorities and contested by those young people subjected to them. The second section considers the ways in which ‘motivations’ are attributed to hackers by ‘experts’ and the public, and the ways in which young hackers themselves construct alternative narrations of their activities which use common understandings of the problematic and conï ¬â€šict-ridden relationship between youth and society. The third section considers the ways in which discourses of ‘addiction’ are mobilised, and the ways in which they make associations with illicit drug use as a behaviour commonly attributed to young people. The fourth section turns to consider the place attributed to gender in explanations of teenage hacking. The ï ¬ fth part explores the ways in which adolescence is used as an explanatory category, drawing variously upon psychologically and socially oriented understandings of developmental crisis, peer inï ¬â€šuence, and subcultural belonging. In concluding, I suggest that the apparent convergence between ‘lay’ and criminological understandings of the origins of youth offending offer considerable scope for developing a critical, academically-informed debate on young people’s participation in computer crime. Hackers and Hacking: Contested Deï ¬ nitions and the Social Construction of Deviance A few decades ago, the terms ‘hacker’ and ‘hacking’ were known only to a relatively small number of people, mainly those in the technically specialised world of computing. Today they have become ‘common knowledge’, something with which most people are familiar, if only through hearsay and exposure to mass media and popular cultural accounts. Current discussion has coalesced around a relatively clear-cut deï ¬ nition, which understands hacking as: ‘the unauthorised access and subsequent use of other people’s computer systems’ (Taylor 1999, p.xi). It is this widely accepted sense of hacking as ‘computer break-in’, and of its perpetrators as ‘break-in artists’ and ‘intruders’, that structures most media, political and criminal justice responses. However, the term has in fact undergone a series of changes in meaning over the years, and continues to be deeply contested, not least amongst those within the computing community. The term ‘hacker’ originated in the world of computer programming in the 1960s, where it was a positive label used to describe someone who was highly skilled in developing creative, elegant and effective solutions to computing problems. A ‘hack’ was, correspondingly, an innovative use of technology (especially the production of computer code or programmes) that yielded positive results and beneï ¬ ts. On this understanding, the pioneers of the Internet, those who brought computing to ‘the masses’, and the developers of new and exciting computer applications (such as video gaming), were all considered to be ‘hackers’ par excellence, the brave new pioneers of the ‘computer revolution’ (Levy 1984; Naughton 2000, p.313). These hackers were said to form a community with its own clearly deï ¬ ned ‘ethic’, one closely associated with the social and political values of the 1960s and 1970s ‘counter-culture’ and protest movements (movements themselves closely associated with youth rebellion and resistance – Muncie (1999, pp.178– 83)). Their ethic emphasised, amongst other things, the right to freely access and exchange knowledge and information; a belief in the capacity of science and technology (especially computing) to enhance individuals’ lives; a distrust of political, military and corporate authorities; and a resistance to ‘conventional’ and ‘mainstream’ lifestyles, attitudes and social hierarchies (Taylor 1999, pp.24–6; Thomas 2002). While such hackers would often engage in ‘exploration’ of others’ computer systems, they purported to do so out of curiosity, a desire to learn and discover, and to free ly share what they had found with others; damaging those systems while ‘exploring’, intentionally or otherwise, was considered both incompetent and unethical. This earlier understanding of hacking and its ethos has since largely been over-ridden by its more negative counterpart, with its stress upon intrusion, violation, theft and sabotage. Hackers of the ‘old school’ angrily refute their depiction in such terms, and use the term ‘cracker’ to distinguish the malicious type of computer enthusiast from hackers proper. Interestingly, this conï ¬â€šict between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ is often presented in inter-generational terms, with the ‘old school’ lamenting the ways in which today’s ‘youngsters’ have lost touch with the more principled and idealistic motivations of their predecessors (Taylor 1999, p.26). Some have suggested that these differences are of little more than historical interest, and insist that the current, ‘negative’ and ‘criminal’ deï ¬ nition of hacking and hackers should be adopted, since this is the dominant way in which the terms are now understood and used (Twist 2003). There is considerable value to this pragmatic approach, and through the rest of this article the terms ‘hackingâ€℠¢ and ‘hackers’ will be used to denote those illegal activities associated with computer intrusion and manipulation, and to denote those persons who engage in such activities. The contested nature of the terms is, however, worth bearing in mind, for a good criminological reason. It shows how hacking, as a form of criminal activity, is actively constructed by governments, law enforcement, the computer security industry, businesses, and media; and how the equation of such activities with ‘crime’ and ‘criminality’ is both embraced and challenged by those who engage in them. In other words, the contest over characterising hackers and hacking is a prime example of what sociologists such as Becker (1963) identify as the ‘labelling process’, the process by which categories of criminal/deviant activity and identity are socially produced. Reactions to hacking and hackers cannot be understood independently from how their meanings are socially created, negotiated and resisted. Criminal justice and other agents propagate, disseminate and utilise negative constructions of hacking as part of the ‘war on computer crime’ . Those who ï ¬ nd themselves so positioned may reject the label, insisting that they are misunderstood, and try to persuade others that they are not ‘criminals’; alternatively, they may seek out and embrace the label, and act accordingly, thereby setting in motion a process of ‘deviance ampliï ¬ cation’ (Young 1971) which ends up producing the very behaviour that the forces of ‘law and order’ are seeking to prevent. In extremis, such constructions can be seen to make hackers into ‘folk devils’ (Cohen 1972), an apparently urgent threat to society which fuels the kinds of ‘moral panic’ about computer crime alluded to in the introduction. As we shall see, such processes of labelling, negotiation and resistance are a central feature of ongoing social contestation about young people’s involvement in hacking. Hacker Motivations: ‘Insider’ and ‘Outsider’ Accounts Inquiries into crime have long dwelt on the causes and motivations behind offending behaviour – in the words of Hirschi (1969), one of the most frequently asked questions is: ‘why do they do it?’. In this respect, deliberations on computer crime are no different, with a range of actors such as journalists, academics, politicians, law enforcement operatives, and members of the public all indicating what they perceive to be the factors underlying hackers’ dedication to computer crime. Many commentators focus upon ‘motivations’, effectively viewing hackers as ‘rational actors’ (Clarke and Felson 1993) who consciously choose to engage in their illicit activities in expectation of some kind of reward or satisfaction. The motivations variously attributed to hackers are wide-ranging and often contradictory. Amongst those concerned with combating hacking activity, there is a tendency to emphasise maliciousness, vandalism, and the desire to commit wanton destruction (Kovacich 1999); attribution of such motivations from law enforcement and computer security agencies is unsurprising, as it offers the most clear-cut way of denying hacking any socially recognised legitimacy. Amongst a wider public, hackers are perceived to act on motivations ranging from self-assertion, curiosity, and thrill seeking, to greed and hooliganism (Dowland et al. 1999, p.720; Voiskounsky, Babeva and Smyslova 2000, p.71). Noteworthy here is the convergence between motives attributed for involvement in hacking and those commonly attributed to youth delinquency in general – the framing of hacking in terms of ‘vandalism’, ‘hooliganism’, ‘curiosity’ and ‘thrill seeking’ clearly references socially available constructions of juvenile offending and offenders (on à ¢â‚¬Ëœhooliganism’ see Pearson (1983); on ‘thrill seeking’ see Katz (1988); Presdee (2000)). One way in which commentators have attempted to reï ¬ ne their understandings of hacker motivations is to elicit from hackers themselves their reasons for engaging in computer crimes. There now exist a number of studies, both ‘popular’ and ‘scholarly’ in which (primarily young) hackers have been interviewed about their illicit activities (for example, Clough and Mungo 1992; Taylor 1999; Verton 2002). In addition, hackers themselves have authored texts and documents in which they elaborate upon their ethos and aims (see, for example, Dr K 2004). Such ‘insider’ accounts cite motivations very different from those cited by ‘outsiders’. In fact, they consistently invoke a rationale for hacking that explicitly mobilises the ‘hacker ethic’ of an earlier generation of computer enthusiasts. In hackers’ self-presentations, they are motivated by factors such as intellectual curiosity, the desire for expanding the boundaries of knowledge, a commitment to the free ï ¬â€šow and exchange of information, resistance to political authoritarianism and corporate domination, and the aim of improving computer security by exposing the laxity and ineptitude of those charged with safeguarding socially sensitive data. However, such accounts ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ do not necessarily furnish insights into hacker motivations that are any more objectively true than those attributed by outside observers. As Taylor (1999) notes: ‘it is difï ¬ cult . . . to separate cleanly the ex ante motivations of hackers from their ex post justiï ¬ cations’ (p.44, italics in original). In other words, such self-attributed motivations may well be rhetorical devices mobilised by hackers to justify their law-breaking and defend themselves against accusat ions of criminality and deviance. Viewed in this way, hackers’ accounts can be seen as part of what criminologists Sykes and Matza (1957) call ‘techniques of neutralisation’. According to Sykes and Matza, ‘delinquents’ will make recourse to such techniques as a way of overcoming the inhibitions or guilt they may otherwise feel when embarking upon law-breaking activity. These techniques include strategies such as ‘denial of injury’, ‘denial of the victim’, ‘condemnation of the condemners’ and ‘appeal to higher loyalties’. The view of hackers’ self-narrations as instances of such techniques can be supported if we examine hacker accounts. A clear illustration is provided by a now famous (or infamous) document called The Conscience of a Hacker authored by ‘The Mentor’ in 1986, now better know as The Hacker’s Manifesto. In the Manifesto, its author explains hackers’ motivations by citing factors such as: the boredom experienced by ‘smart kids’ at the mercy of incompetent school teachers and ‘sadists’; the experience of being constantly dismissed by teachers and parents as ‘damn kids’ who are ‘all alike’; the desire to access a service that ‘could be dirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by proï ¬ teering gluttons’; the desire to explore and learn which is denied by ‘you’ who ‘build atomic bombs, [. . .] wage wars, [. . .] murder, cheat and lie’ (The Mentor 1986). Such reasoning clearly justiï ¬ es hacking activities by re-labelling ‘harm’ as ‘curiosity’, by suggesting that victims are in some sense ‘getting what they deserve’ as a consequence of their greed, and turning tables on accusers by claiming the ‘moral high ground’ through a citation of †˜real’ crimes committed by the legitimate political and economic establishment. Again, we see an inter-generational dimension that references commonplace understandings of ‘misunderstood youth’ and the corrupt and neglectful nature of the ‘adult world’. Thus young hackers themselves invest in and mobilise a perennial, socially available discourse about the ‘gulf ’ between ‘society’ and its ‘youth’. Discourses of Addiction: Computers, Drugs and the ‘Slippery Slope’ A second strand of thinking about hacking downplays ‘motivations’ and ‘choices’, and emphasises instead the psychological and/or social factors that seemingly dispose certain individuals or groups toward law-breaking behaviour. In such accounts, ‘free choice’ is sidelined in favour of a view of human actions as fundamentally caused by forces acting within or upon the offender. From an individualistic perspective, some psychologists have attempted to explain hacking by viewing it as an extension of compulsive computer use over which the actor has limited control. So-called ‘Internet Addiction Disorder’ is viewed as an addiction akin to alcoholism and narcotic dependence, in which the sufferer loses the capacity to exercise restraint over his or her own habituated desire (Young 1998; Young, Pistner and O’Mara 1999). Some accounts of teenage hacking draw explicit parallels with drug addiction, going so far as to suggest that engagement in relatively innocuous hacking activities can lead to more serious infractions, just as use of ‘soft’ drugs like marijuana is commonly claimed to constitute a ‘slippery slope’ leading to the use of ‘hard’ drugs like crack cocaine and heroin (Verton 2002, pp.35, 39, 41, 51).

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 45

Break Free of a Nimbostratus A week after my cast has been removed, I stand alone on the footbridge in Knight's Park, leaning my weight on the railing, gazing down at a pond I could walk around in less than five minutes. The water underneath me has a thin layer of ice on top, and I think about dropping rocks through it, but I do not know why, especially since I have no rocks. Even still, I want to drop rocks through the ice so badly, to puncture it, proving that it is weak and temporary, to see the black water below rise up and out of the hole I alone will have created. I think about the hidden fish – mostly those big goldfish people stock the pond with so old men will have something to feed in spring and little boys will have something to catch in the summer – fish now burrowed in the mud at the bottom of the pond. Or are these fish burrowing just yet? Will they wait until the pond freezes completely? Here's a thought: I'm like Holden Caulfield thinking about ducks, only I'm thirty-five years old and Holden was a teenager. Maybe the accident knocked my brain back into teenager mode? Part of me wants to climb up onto the railing and jump off the bridge, which is only ten yards long, only three feet above the pond; part of me wants to break through the ice with my feet, to plunge down, down, down into the mud, where I can sleep for months and forget about all I now remember and know. Part of me wishes I never regained my memory, that I still had that false hope to cling to – that I still had at least the idea of Nikki to keep me moving forward. When I finally look up from the ice and toward the soccer fields, I see that Tiffany has accepted my invitation to meet, just like Cliff said she would. She is only two inches tall in the distance, wearing a yellow ski cap and a white coat that covers most of her thighs, making her look like a wingless angel growing and growing – and I watch her pass the swing sets and the large pavilion with picnic tables inside. I watch her walk along the water's edge until she finally reaches her usual height, which is five feet and a few inches tall. When she steps onto the footbridge, I immediately look down at the thin layer of ice again. Tiffany walks over to me and stands so her arm is almost touching mine, but not quite. Using my peripheral vision, I see that she too is now looking down at the thin layer of ice, and I wonder if she also wishes she could drop some rocks. We stand like this for what seems like an hour, neither of us saying anything. My face gets very cold, until I can no longer feel my nose or ears. Finally, without looking at Tiffany, I say, â€Å"Why didn't you come to my birthday party?† which is a stupid question to pose at this time, I realize, but I can't think of anything else to say, especially since I haven't seen Tiffany for many weeks – not since I screamed at her on Christmas Day. â€Å"My mom said she invited you. So why didn't you come?† After a long pause, Tiffany says, â€Å"Well, like I said in my letter, your brother threatened to kill me if I made contact with you. Also, Ronnie came to my house the day before your party and forbade me to go. He said they never should have introduced us in the first place.† I had already talked to Jake about his threat, but I have a hard time imagining Ronnie saying such a thing to Tiffany. And yet I know Tiffany is telling the truth. She seems really hurt and vulnerable right now, especially because she is sort of chewing on her bottom lip as if it were a piece of gum. Surely Ronnie said these words against Veronica's wishes. His wife would never let him say something so potentially ego-damaging to Tiffany, and the thought of Ronnie keeping Tiffany from attending my party makes me a little proud of my best friend, especially since he went against his wife's wishes to protect me. â€Å"Bros B4 Hos† is what Danny said to me every time I would lament Nikki, back when we were both in the bad place – before he had that second operation. In art therapy class, Danny even made me a little poster with the words written in stylish gold letters, which I hung on the wall space between my bed and my roommate Jackie's – back in the bad place – but one of the evil nurses took Danny's artwork down when I was not in the room, a fact Jackie confirmed by blinking and banging his head against his shoulder. Even though I realize the phrase is sort of sexist (because men should not refer to women as hos), saying â€Å"Bros B4 Hos† in my mind now sort of makes me smile, especially since Ronnie is my best bro in New Jersey, now that Jake and Danny live in PA. â€Å"I'm sorry, Pat. Is that what you want to hear? Well, I'll say it again, I'm really, really fucking sorry.† Even though Tiffany uses the f-word, her voice sort of quivers like Mom's when she says something she truly means, and it makes me think that Tiffany might actually start crying right here on the bridge. â€Å"I'm a screwed-up person who no longer knows how to communicate with the people I love. But I meant everything I told you in my letter. If I were your Nikki, I would have come back to you on Christmas Day, but I'm not Nikki. I know. And I'm sorry.† I don't know what to say in response, so we stand there for many minutes, saying nothing. Suddenly – for some crazy reason – I want to tell Tiffany the ending of the movie, the one that was my old life. I figure she should know the ending, especially since she had a starring role. And then the words are spilling out of me. â€Å"I decided to confront Nikki, just to let her know I remember what happened between us but do not hold any grudges. My brother drove me to my old house in Maryland, and it turns out that Nikki is still living there, which I thought was sort of strange, especially since she has a new me – this guy Phillip who works with Nikki as a fellow English teacher and always used to call me an illiterate buffoon because I never used to read literary books,† I say, leaving out the part about my strangling and punching naked Phillip when I caught him in the shower with Nikki, â€Å"and if I were Phillip, I probably would not want to live in my wife's ex-husband's house, because that is just sort of weird, right?† Tiffany doesn't say anything when I pause, so I just keep on talking. â€Å"When we drove down my old street, it was snowing, which is a little more rare in Maryland and therefore a big deal to little kids. There was only maybe a half inch on the ground – a dusting – but enough to scoop up in your hands. I saw Nikki outside with Phillip, and they were playing with two children – by the colors each was dressed in, I figured the one in navy blue was a little boy and the one mostly in peach was an even littler girl. After we rolled by, I told Jake to circle the block and park the car half a block away so we could watch Nikki's new family play in the snow. My old house is on a busy street, so we weren't likely to draw Nikki's attention. Jake did as I asked and then killed the engine but left the windshield wipers on so he could see. I rolled down my window, as I was in the backseat because of my cast, and we watched the family play for a long time – so long that Jake finally started the car back up and turned on the heat becaus e he was too cold. Nikki was wearing the long green-and-white-striped scarf I used to wear to Eagles games, a brown barn coat, and red mittens. Her strawberry blond hair hung freely from under her green hat, so many curls. They were having a snowball fight; Nikki's new family was having a beautiful snowball fight. You could tell the kids loved their father and mother, and the father loved the mother, and the mother loved the father, and the parents loved the children – as they all tossed the snow at each other so lovingly, taking turns chasing each other, laughing and falling into one another's heavily bundled bodies, and †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I pause here because I am having trouble getting the words out of my throat. â€Å"And I squinted hard trying to see Nikki's face, and even from a block away I could tell she was smiling the whole time and was so very happy, and somehow that was enough for me to officially end apart time and roll the credits of my movie without even confronting Nikki, so I just asked Jake to drive me back to New Jersey, which he did, because he is probably the best brother in the entire world. So I guess I just want Nikki to be happy, even if her happy life doesn't include me, because I had my chance and I wasn't a very good husband and Nikki was a great wife, and †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I have to pause again. I swallow several times. â€Å"And I'm just going to remember that scene as the happy ending of my old life's movie. Nikki having a snowball fight with her new family. She looked so happy – and her new husband, and her two children †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I stop talking because no more words will come out. It's as if the cold air has already frozen my tongue and throat – as if the cold is spreading down into my lungs and is freezing my chest from the inside out. Tiffany and I stand on the bridge for a long time. Even though my face is numb, I begin to feel a warmth in my eyes, and suddenly I realize I am sort of crying again. I wipe my eyes and nose with my coat sleeve, and then I am sobbing. Only when I finish crying does Tiffany finally speak, although she doesn't talk about Nikki. â€Å"I got you a birthday present, but it's nothing much. And I didn't wrap it or get you a card or anything, because, well †¦ because I'm your fucked-up friend who does not buy cards or wrap presents. And I know it's more than a month late, but anyway †¦Ã¢â‚¬  She takes off her gloves, undoes a few buttons, and pulls my present from the inside pocket of her coat. I take it from her hands, a collection of ten or so heavily laminated pages – maybe four by eight inches each and held together by a silver bolt in the top left corner. The cover reads: SKYWATCHER'S CLOUD CHART An easy to use, durable identifying chart for all outdoor enthusiasts â€Å"You were always looking up at clouds when we used to run,† Tiffany says, â€Å"so I thought you might like to be able to tell the difference between the shapes.† With excitement, I rotate the cover upward so I can read the first heavily laminated page. After reading all about the four basic cloud shapes – stratus, nimbus, cumulus, and cirrus – after looking at all the beautiful pictures documenting the different variations of the four groups, somehow Tiffany and I end up lying on our backs in the middle of the exact soccer field I used to play on when I was a kid. We look up at the sky, and it's a sheet of winter gray, but Tiffany says maybe if we wait long enough, a shape will break free, and we will be able to identify the single cloud using my new Skywatcher's Cloud Chart. We lie there on the frozen ground for a very long time, waiting, but all we see up in the sky is the solid gray blanket, which my new cloud chart identifies as a nimbostratus – â€Å"a gray cloud mass from which widespread and continuous rain or snow falls.† After a time, Tiffany's head ends up on my chest, and my arm ends up around her shoulders so that I am pulling her body close to mine. We shiver together alone on the field for what seems like hours. When it begins to snow, the flakes fall huge and fast. Almost immediately the field turns white, and this is when Tiffany whispers the strangest thing. She says, â€Å"I need you, Pat Peoples; I need you so fucking bad,† and then she begins to cry hot tears onto my skin as she kisses my neck softly and sniffles. It is a strange thing for her to say, so far removed from a regular woman's â€Å"I love you,† and yet probably more true. It feels good to hold Tiffany close to me, and I remember what my mother said back when I tried to get rid of my friend by asking her to go to the diner with me. Mom said, â€Å"You need friends, Pat. Everybody does.† I also remember that Tiffany lied to me for many weeks; I remember the awful story Ronnie told me about Tiffany's dismissal from work and what she admitted to in her most recent letter; I remember just how bizarre my friendship with Tiffany has been – but then I remember that no one else but Tiffany could really even come close to understanding how I feel after losing Nikki forever. I remember that apart time is finally over, and while Nikki is gone for good, I still have a woman in my arms who has suffered greatly and desperately needs to believe once again that she is beautiful. In my arms is a woman who has given me a Skywatcher's Cloud Chart, a woman who knows all my secrets, a woman who knows just how messed up my mind is, how many pills I'm on, and yet she allows me to hold her anyway. There's something honest about all of this, and I cannot imagine any other woman lying in the middle of a frozen soccer field with me – in the middle of a snowstorm even – im possibly hoping to see a single cloud break free of a nimbostratus. Nikki would not have done this for me, not even on her best day. So I pull Tiffany a little closer, kiss the hard spot between her perfectly plucked eyebrows, and after a deep breath, I say, â€Å"I think I need you too.†

Modernization of Gambling Games in Philippines

any interactive game operated by computer circuitry. The machines, or â€Å"platforms,† on which electronic games are played include general-purpose shared and personal computers, arcade consoles, video consoles connected to home television sets, and handheld game machines. The term video game can be used to represent the totality of these formats, or it can refer more specifically only to games played on devices with video displays: television and arcade consoles Forms of online gambling The Internet has made way for new types of gambling to form online.The recent improvements in technology have once again changed betting habits just as Video Lottery Terminal, keno and Scratchcards changed the gambling industry in the early 20th century. Internet gambling has become one of the most popular and lucrative business present on the Internet. In 2007 the gambling commission stated that the gambling industry achieved a turnover of over  £84 billion according to the UK Gambling Com mission. This is partly due to the wide range of gambling options that are available to facilitate many different types of people. [3] [edit]Poker Main article: Online pokerOnline poker tables commonly offer Texas hold 'em, Omaha, Seven-card stud, razz, HORSE and other game types in both tournament and ring game structures. Players play against each other rather than the â€Å"house†, with the card room making its money through â€Å"rake† and through tournament fees. [edit]Casinos Main article: Online casino There are a large number of online casinos in which people can play casino games such as roulette, blackjack, pachinko, baccarat and many others.These games are played against the â€Å"house† which makes money due to the fact that the odds are in its favor. edit]Sports betting Main article: Sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. [edit]Bingo Main article: Online bingo Online bingo is th e game of bingo (US|non-US) played on the Internet. [edit]Lotteries Main article: Online lottery Most lotteries are run by governments and are heavily protected from competition due to their ability to generate large taxable cash flows. The first online lotteries were run by private individuals or companies and licensed to operate by small countries.Most private online lotteries have stopped trading as governments have passed new laws giving themselves and their own lotteries greater protection. Government controlled lotteries now offer their games online. [edit]UK National Lottery The UK National Lottery started in 1994 and is operated by the Camelot Group. Around 70% of UK adults play the National Lottery regularly, making the average annual sales over  £5 billion apart from the year 2000-01 where sales dropped just below that. In its first 17 years it has created over 2,800 millionaires. [4] In 2002 Camelot decided to rebrand the National Lottery main draw after falling ticket sales.The name National Lottery was kept as the general name for the organisation and the main draw was renamed Lotto. The advertising campaign for the new Lotto cost  £72 Million which included 10 television advertisements featuring Scottish comedian Billy Connolly and one of the largest ever poster campaigns. The new brand and name had the slogan: â€Å"Don't live a little, live a Lotto†[5] [edit]Horse racing betting Horse racing betting comprises a significant percentage of online gambling wagers and all major Internet bookmakers, betting exchanges, and sports books offer a wide variety of horse racing betting markets [edit]Mobile gamblingMain article: Mobile gambling Mobile gambling refers to playing games of chance or skill for money by using a remote device such as a tablet computer, smartphone or a mobile phone with a wireless internet connection. [edit]In-Play gambling In-Play gambling is a feature on many online sports betting websites that allows the user to bet w hile the event is in progress. A benefit of live in-play gambling is that there are much more markets. For example, in Association football a user could bet on which player will receive the next Yellow card, or which team will be awarded the next corner kick. [6] [edit]Provably fair gamblingWith the dawn of Bitcoin, provably fair gambling[7] also became available for a global audience. These gambling sites allow the public to see how outcomes are based on the gambler's input and a secret number that is disclosed and changed for the next rounds every hour for example. This allows online gamblers to verify if the website â€Å"played† fair. [edit]Funds transfers Gambling money online can come from credit card, electronic check, certified check, money order, or even wire transfer. [8] Normally, gamblers upload funds to the online gambling company, make bets or play the games that it offers, and then cash out any winnings.Gamblers can often fund gambling accounts by credit card o r debit card, and cash out winnings directly back to the card; most U. S. banks, however, prohibit the use of their cards for the purpose of Internet gambling, and attempts by Americans to use credit cards at Internet gambling sites are usually rejected. [9] A number of electronic money services offer accounts with which online gambling can be funded; however, many top fund-transfer sites such as FirePay, Neteller & Moneybookers have discontinued service for U. S. esidents. Payment by check and wire transfer is also common and some gambling providers accept Bitcoin, a digital currency.Online poker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82. 7 million in 2001 to $2. billion in 2005,[1] while a survey carried out by DrKW and Global Betting and Gaming Consultants asser ted online poker revenues in 2004 were at $1. 4 billion. [2] In a testimony before the United States Senate regarding Internet Gaming, Grant Eve, a Certified Public Accountant representing the US Accounting Firm Joseph Eve, Certified Public Accountants, estimated that one in every four dollars is gambled online. [3] Traditional (or â€Å"brick and mortar†, B&M, live, land-based) venues for playing poker, such as casinos and poker rooms, may be intimidating for novice players and are often located in geographically disparate locations.Also, brick and mortar casinos are reluctant to promote poker because it is difficult for them to profit from it. Though the rake, or time charge, of traditional casinos is often high, the opportunity costs of running a poker room are even higher. Brick and mortar casinos often make much more money by removing poker rooms and adding more slot machines – for example, figures from the Gaming Accounting Firm Joseph Eve estimate that poker acc ounts for 1% of brick and mortar casino revenues. [3] Screenshot of open-source PokerTH tableOnline venues, by contrast, are dramatically cheaper because they have much smaller overhead costs. For example, adding another table does not take up valuable space like it would for a brick and mortar casino. Online poker rooms also allow the players to play for low stakes (as low as 1 ¢/2 ¢)[4] and often offer poker freeroll tournaments (where there is no entry fee), attracting beginners and/or less wealthy clientele. Online venues may be more vulnerable to certain types of fraud, especially collusion between players. However, they have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in brick and mortar casinos.For example, online poker room security employees can look at the hand history of the cards previously played by any player on the site, making patterns of behavior easier to detect than in a casino where colluding players can simply fold their hands without anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Online poker rooms also check players' IP addresses in order to prevent players at the same household or at known open proxy servers from playing on the same tables. Free poker online was played as early as the late 1990s in the form of IRC poker.Planet Poker was the first online cardroom to offer real money games. The first real money poker game was dealt on January 1, 1998. Author Mike Caro became the â€Å"face† of Planet Poker in October 1999. The major online poker sites offer varying features to entice new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. It was through one such tournament on PokerStars that Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker. He went on to win the main event, causing shock in the poker world, and beginning the poker boom.The 2004 World Series featured three times as many players as in 2003. At least four play ers in the WSOP final table won their entry through an online cardroom. Like Moneymaker, 2004 winner Greg Raymer also won his entry at the PokerStars online cardroom. In October 2004, Sportingbet, at the time the world's largest publicly traded online gaming company (SBT. L), announced the acquisition of ParadisePoker. com, one of the online poker industry's first and largest cardrooms. The $340 million dollar acquisition marked the first time an online cardroom was owned by a public company.Since then, several other cardroom parent companies have gone public. In June 2005, PartyGaming, the parent company of the then largest online cardroom, PartyPoker, went public on the London Stock Exchange, achieving an initial public offering market value in excess of $8 billion dollars. At the time of the IPO, ninety-two percent of Party Gaming's income came from poker operations. In early 2006, PartyGaming moved to acquire EmpirePoker. com from Empire Online. Later in the year, bwin, an Austr ian based online gambling company, acquired PokerRoom. com.Other poker rooms such as PokerStars that were rumored to be exploring initial public offerings have postponed them. [5] As of March 2008, there are fewer than forty stand-alone cardrooms and poker networks with detectable levels of traffic. There are however more than 600 independent doorways or ‘skins' into the group of network sites. [6] As of January 2009, the majority of online poker traffic occurs on just a few major networks, among them PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the iPoker Network. As of February 2010, there are approximately 545 online poker websites. 7]Within the 545 active sites, about two dozen are stand-alone sites (down from 40 in March 2008), while the remaining sites are called â€Å"skins† and operate on 21 different shared networks, the largest network being iPoker which has dozens of skins operating on its network. [8] Of all the online poker rooms PokerStars. com is deemed the world†™s largest poker site by number of players on site at any one time. [9] By May 2012 PokerStars. com had increased their market share to more than 56%. [10] How online poker rooms profit Typically, online poker rooms generate the bulk of their revenue via four methods. First, there is the rake.Rake is collected from most real money ring game pots. The rake is normally calculated as a percentage of the pot based on a sliding scale and capped at some maximum fee. Each online poker room determines its own rake structure. Since the expenses for running an online poker table are smaller than those for running a live poker table, rake in most online poker rooms is much smaller than its brick and mortar counterpart. Second, hands played in pre-scheduled multi-table and impromptu sit-and-go tournaments are not raked, but rather an entry fee around five to ten percent of the tournament buy-in is added to the entry cost of the tournament.These two are usually specified in the tournament deta ils as, e. g. , $20+$2 ($20 represents the buy-in that goes into the prize pool and $2 represents the entry fee, de facto rake). Unlike real casino tournaments, online tournaments do not deduct dealer tips and other expenses from the prize pool. Third, some online poker sites also offer games like blackjack or side bets on poker hands where the player plays against â€Å"the house† for real money. The odds are in the house's favor in these games, thus producing a profit for the house.Some sites go as far as getting affiliated with online casinos, or even integrating them into the poker room software. Fourth, like almost all institutions that hold money, online poker sites invest the money that players deposit. Regulations in most jurisdictions exist in an effort to limit the sort of risks sites can take with their clients' money. However, since the sites do not have to pay interest on players' bankrolls even low-risk investments can be a significant source of revenue. Differe nces compared with conventional poker There are substantial differences between online poker gaming and conventional, in-person gaming.One obvious difference is that players do not sit right across from each other, removing any ability to observe others' reactions and body language. Instead, online poker players learn to focus more keenly on opponents' betting patterns, reaction time, speed of play, use of check boxes/auto plays, opponents' fold/flop percentages, chat box, waiting for the big blind, beginners' tells, and other behavior tells that are not physical in nature. Since poker is a game that requires adaptability, successful online players learn to master the new frontiers of their surroundings.Another less obvious difference is the rate of play. In brick and mortar casinos the dealer has to collect the cards, shuffle, and deal them after every hand. Due to this and other delays common in offline casinos, the average rate of play is around thirty hands per hour. However, on line casinos do not have these delays. The dealing and shuffling are instantaneous, there are no delays relating to counting chips (for a split pot), and on average the play is faster due to â€Å"auto-action† buttons (where the player selects his action before his turn).It is not uncommon for an online poker table to average ninety to one hundred hands per hour. There are many ways in which online poker is considerably cheaper to play than conventional poker. While the rake structures of online poker sites might not differ fundamentally from those in brick and mortar operations, most of the other incidental expenses that are entailed by playing poker in a live room do not exist in online poker. An online poker player can play at home and thus incur no transportation costs to get to and from the poker room.Provided the player already has a somewhat modern computer and an Internet connection, there are no further up-front equipment costs to get started. There are also consider able incidental expenses once on a live poker table. In addition to the rake, tipping the dealers, chip runners, servers and other casino employees is almost universally expected, putting a further drain on a player's profits. Also, whereas an online player can enter and leave tables almost as he pleases, once seated at a live table a player must remain there until he wishes to stop playing, or else go back to the bottom f the waiting list.Food and beverages at casinos are generally expensive even compared to other hospitality establishments in the same city, let alone compared to at home, and casino managers feel little incentive to provide any complementary food or drink for poker players. [citation needed] In the brick and mortar casinos, the only real way a player can increase his earnings is to increase his limit, likely encountering better opponents in the process. In the online world, players have another option: play more tables.Unlike a traditional casino where it is physic ally impossible to play at more than one table at a time, most online poker rooms permit this. Depending on the site and the player's ability to make speedy decisions, a player might play several tables at the same time, viewing them each in a separate window on the computer display. For example, an average profit around $10 per 100 hands at a low-limit game is generally considered to be good play. In a casino, this would earn a player under $4 an hour.After dealer tips, the â€Å"winning† player would probably barely break even before any other incidental expenses. In an online poker room, a player with the same win rate playing a relatively easy pace of four tables at once at a relatively sluggish 60 hands per hour each earns about $24/hour on average. The main restriction limiting the number of tables a player can play is the need to make consistently good decisions within the allotted time at every table, but some online players can effectively play up to eight or more ta bles at once.This can not only increase winnings but can also help to keep a player's income reasonably stable, since instead of staking his entire bankroll on one higher limit table he is splitting his bankroll, wins and losses amongst many lower limit tables, probably also encountering somewhat less skilled opponents in the process. Another important difference results from the fact that some online poker rooms offer online poker schools that teach the basics and significantly speed up the learning curve for novices.Many online poker rooms also provide free money play so that players may practice these skills in various poker games and limits without the risk of losing real money, and generally offer the hand history of played hands for analysis and discussion using a poker hand converter. People who previously had no way to learn and improve because they had no one to play with now have the ability to learn the game much quicker and gain experience from free-money play. The limit s associated with online poker range down to far lower levels than the table limits at a traditional casino.The marginal cost of opening each online table is so minuscule that on some gambling sites players can find limits as low as $. 01–$. 02. By comparison, at most brick and mortar establishments the lowest limits are often $1–$2. Few (if any) online poker sites allow action to be taken â€Å"in the dark†, while this is usually allowed and applied by players in real gaming houses. It is also not uncommon for online poker sites to not allow a player the option of showing their hand before folding if they are the giving up the pot to the last remaining bettor. This practice is also typically allowed in casinos. edit]Online casino From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2013) On line casinos, also known as virtual casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of traditional (â€Å"brick and mortar†) casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet. Online casinos generally offer odds and payback percentages that are comparable to land-based casinos.Some online casinos claim higher payback percentages for slot machine games, and some publish payout percentage audits on their websites. Assuming that the online casino is using an appropriately programmed random number generator, table games like blackjack have an established house edge. The payout percentage for these games are established by the rules of the game. Many online casinos lease or purchase their software from companies like Microgaming, Realtime Gaming, Playtech, International Game Technology and CryptoLogic Inc. Online casino typesOnline casinos can be divided into two groups based on their interface: web-based and download-only casinos. Som e casinos offer both interfaces. [edit]Web-based online casinos Web-based online casinos are websites where users may play casino games without downloading software to the local computer. Games are mainly represented in the browser plugins Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, or Java and require browser support for these plugins. Also, bandwidth is needed since all graphics, sounds and animations are loaded through the web via the plugin. Some online casinos also allow gameplay through a plain HTML interface.Apple devices such as iPod, iPad and iPhone cannot play Flash games as the technology is not supported. [edit]Download-based online casinos Download-based online casinos require the download of the software client in order to play and wager on the casino games offered. The online casino software connects to the casino service provider and handles contact without browser support. Download-based online casinos generally run faster than web-based online casinos since the graphic s and sound programs are located within the software client, rather than having to be loaded from the Internet.On the other hand, the initial download and installation of a download-based online casino client does take time. As with any download from the Internet, the risk of the program containing malware does exist. Still the graphics and sounds at download-based online casinos are most of the time much better than those at web-based online casinos. [edit]Online casino game variants The game types through the online casino interface can also be divided into two categories: live casinos, which offer live interactive casino gaming via video link, and virtual casinos, which provide computer simulations of popular casino games. citation needed]However, there is a great deal of crossover between the two, as most of the major virtual casinos now offer live gaming, and websites that are predominantly marketed as live casinos usually tend to offer virtual gaming in addition to live dealer games. [citation needed] [edit]Virtual casino games In a virtual casino game, the outcome of each game is dependent on the data produced by a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG). This determines the order of the cards in card games, the outcome of a dice throw, or the results produced by the spinning of a slot machine or roulette wheel.PRNGs use a set of mathematical instructions known as an algorithm to generate a long stream of numbers that give the impression of true randomness. While this is not the same as true random number generation (computers are incapable of this without an external input source), it provides results that satisfy all but the most stringent requirements for true randomness. [1] When implemented correctly, a PRNG algorithm such as the Mersenne Twister will ensure that the games are both fair and unpredictable.However, the player has to take it on trust that the software has not been rigged to increase the house edge, as its inner workings are invisible to the user. Properly regulated online casinos are audited externally by independent regulators such as eCOGRA to ensure that their win percentages are in line with the stated odds, and this provides a degree of assurance to the player that the games are fair. [citation needed] [edit]Live dealer casino games In a live casino game, a human dealer runs the game in real time from a casino gaming table, which can be seen via a live streaming video link.Players can make betting decisions via a console on their computer screen, and can communicate with the dealer using a text chat function. The results of the physical transactions by the dealer, such as the outcome of the roulette wheel spin or the dealing of cards, are translated into data that can be utilized by the software by means of optical character recognition (OCR) technology. This enables the player to interact with the game in much the same way as they would with a virtual casino game, except for the fact that the results are dete rmined by real-life actions rather than automated processes.These games are a lot more expensive for websites to host than virtual games, as they involve a heavier investment in technology and staffing. A live casino studio typically employs one or more cameramen, several croupiers running the various games, an IT manager to ensure that any technical hitches are dealt with swiftly, and a pit boss that acts as an adjudicator in case of disputes between players and croupiers. In most cases, this requires at least a three room setup, comprising a live studio, a server/software room, and an analyst’s room.The configuration of these rooms varies from casino to casino, with some having several gaming tables in one room, and some having a single table in each room. [2] The high running costs involved with operating live dealer games is the reason why online casinos only tend to offer a handful of the most popular games in this format, such as roulette, blackjack, sic bo, baccarat, a nd poker. In comparison, the running costs associated with virtual games are very low, and it is not uncommon for online casinos to offer hundreds of different virtual casino games to players on their site.Online casinos vary in their approach to the hosting of live games, with some providing live games via their own television channel, and others offering the games exclusively via their website. In the case of televised games, players can often use their mobile phone or television remote controls to place bets instead of doing so via a computer connected to the internet. [edit]Games offered A typical selection of gambling games offered at an online casino might include: Baccarat Blackjack Craps Roulette Sic bo Online slot games Online poker Keno Bingo 31 Online bingoFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010) Online bingo is the game of bingo (US|UK) played on the Internet. It is estimated that the global gross gaming yield of bingo (excluding the United States) was US$500 million in 2006, and it is forecasted to grow to $1 billion by 2010. [1] Unlike balls used in regular bingo halls, online bingo sites use a random number generator.Most bingo halls also offer links to online poker and casino offerings as the patrons are often in the target market. One notable feature of online bingo is the chat functionality. Bingo sites strive to foster a sense of community and interaction between players as this helps customer retention. [edit]Main types of bingo games There are four main types of bingo played around the world. In live North American bingo halls, they typically play the 75-ball version of bingo on a 5Ãâ€"5 card with the center square usually marked ‘free'.The letters B-I-N-G-O typically sit atop the 75 ball bingo card and they correspond with each of the five colu mns found on the bingo card. The desired pattern which players aim to achieve in 75 ball can vary dramatically, from a simple single line to more complicated themed patterns. The aim of the game, however, is always the same: to mark off the numbers to achieve the desired pattern. Speed Bingo is a variation played exactly the same, but numbers are simply called much quicker. In the UK, parts of Europe, Australia and parts of South America they play a 90-ball game, marked on a 9Ãâ€"3 card.Both types of bingo are prominent online. In 90-ball bingo, each card has three horizontal lines and nine columns. Each line contains five numbers, meaning each card has 15 numbers. The first column contains numbers from 1-9, the second column contains numbers from 10-19, the third column contains numbers from 20-29, all the way through to the final column which contains numbers from 80-90. A game of 90 ball bingo will normally be played in three stages: one line, two lines and full house. In a â₠¬Å"one line† game players need to mark a complete horizontal line across one card (i. e. , 5 numbers marked).The aim of a ‘two lines' game is to complete any two marked lines horizontally across one card (i. e. , 10 numbers marked). Finally a â€Å"full house† means all the numbers marked off on one card (all 15 numbers), as in a regular coverall game. The prize split differs for each stage of the game. The prize will be shared equally among the winners if there is more than one. The full house is always the largest prize in any one game. A third type of bingo game is a rather quick game of bingo. It is played with 30 balls, numbered one through thirty and appropriately known as 30 ball bingo or speed bingo.The 30 ball bingo game utilizes a 3 Ãâ€" 3 card and the object of the game is to be the first bingo player to â€Å"fill† his or her card, which requires all nine numbers on your card to match the numbers that have been called out. The fourth main type of bingo game is 80 ball bingo, which is a hybrid between the 75 ball bingo rules and 90 ball bingo rules. The bingo cards are 4Ãâ€"4, thus they contain 16 numbers. Prizes are awarded in 80 ball bingo vary, depending on the game played. Some of the ways to win 80 ball bingo include being the first player to complete an entire line on their bingo card.The â€Å"line† can be horizontal, diagonal, or vertical. Getting â€Å"four corners† also constitutes a win in some 80 ball bingo games, whilst other games require multiple lines (1 or two lines), and still others require a full house. [edit]History One of the earliest known online bingo games, launched in 1996, was a free bingo game called â€Å"Bingo Zone†. [2] To play, members had to provide demographic information; in turn, members would receive targeted ads based on the demographics provided. [3] Another early pioneer for free online bingo was Uproar, which launched Bingo Blitz in 1998. 4]Getting started Some operators require players to download free software to play their games. Other operators use JavaScript or Adobe Flash based games that allow you to play immediately online after registering a player account. Most sites accept a standard range of e-wallet funding options. Sites often provide a number of incentives to deposit, including matching bonuses where the site will reward depositing players by matching a percentage of their deposit. Recently, the US government has passed laws that limit banks ability to process credit cards for US citizens.The laws prevent US based payment providers from taking payments for online gaming. [edit]Playing Playing bingo online, players can make use of optional features which make playing the game easier, such as auto-daub. Auto-daub automatically marks off the numbers on cards as they are called, so players don't have to. Most software providers support other gaming features as â€Å"Best Card Sorting† and â€Å"Best Card Highlightingâ⠂¬  where players cards are sorted and highlighted by closest to bingo. There is variety among the different kinds of bingo games that can be played.For example, some inexpensive game rooms appeal to the player who may want to play for just a 10 cents or 10 pence; some bingo games only allow players to purchase the same amount of cards so they are not competing against the â€Å"high rollers† out there who buy many cards for the same game. [edit]Chat Whereas in land-based bingo where talking is strictly forbidden during a game, it is actively encouraged in online bingo. Chat functions as an effective retention tool, aimed especially at the predominantly female audience. It is customary for players to congratulate winning players with comments like â€Å"WTG,† or â€Å"Way To Go†.Much like instant messaging, online bingo chat communities have their own acronyms which are often used in replace of often repeated sentences. CM stands for â€Å"chat monitor†. (This can also stand for chat moderator; in some other sites you may have â€Å"CH† which stands for chat host. ) The CM works for the bingo site as the host of a chat room and plays a role in welcoming players and creating a friendly and communal atmosphere in the room. This includes, but is not limited to, congratulating players when they win a game as well as playing chat games in-between bingo.Most sites have a chat protocol known as chat etiquette or chatiquette. [edit]Bingo networks There are a number of sites that will have the same promotions, similar graphics, the same bingo rooms and the same CMs. This occurs because they are part of a bingo â€Å"network†. In simple terms, this means a number of different sites (or â€Å"front ends†) are playing with the same numbers for the same jackpot (i. e. , the same back end). Multiple sites act as doorways to a single game, leading to larger pools of players in chat rooms and more sizable pots to win, in an ar rangement known as White Label Gaming. 5]While the bingo software is the same, the brand owners are responsible for the look and feel of the site, together with any promotions they wish to offer. This is an important feature of online bingo in that it is critical that any site have enough players to have a decent sized game. Hence, the bingo network â€Å"shares† players. Some operators choose not to pool their players together and because they segregate their players, they operate on a stand-alone network, which again can be via â€Å"white label† (Brigend Limited is the most commonly used stand-alone white label software) or can be done through the use of proprietary software. edit] Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. [edit]Types of bets See also: Glossary of bets offered by UK bookmakers [edit]United States of America Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will w in its division or buying a football â€Å"square† for the Super Bowl, sports betting is commonly performed through a bookmaker or through various online Internet outlets. The many types of bets include: Straight Bets are wagers that are made against the spread.The spread, or line, is a number assigned by the bookmakers which handicaps one team and favors another. For example, in the NBA, when two teams play each other, one is perceived as being more likely to win. To attempt to make wagering on the underdog desirable, the bookmaker will give them points. Before game 5 of the 2012 NBA Finals, the Miami Heat were expected to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder. The line read: Miami -3, Oklahoma City +3. To determine who wins against the spread, the line is either added or subtracted from a teams final score.In the above example, if the bettor chose Miami, he would subtract 3 points from Miami's final score and compare that to Oklahoma's final score. For him to win his bet, Miami wo uld have to win the game by 4 points or more. This is the most common type of bet in sports. Proposition bets are wagers made on a very specific outcome of a match. Examples include guessing the number of goals each team scores in a handball match, betting whether a player will score in a football game, or wagering that a baseball player on one team will accumulate more hits than another player on the opposing team.Parlays involve multiple bets (usually up to 12) and will reward a successful bettor with a large payout. For example, a bettor could include four different wagers in a four-team parlay, whereby he is wagering that all four bets will win. If any of the four bets fails to cover, the bettor loses the parlay, but if all four bets win, the bettor receives a substantially higher payout (usually 10-1 in the case of a four-teamer) than if he made the four wagers separately. Progressive parlays. A progressive parlay involves multiple bets (usually up to 12) and rewards successful bettors with a large payout, though not as large as normal parlays.However in a progressive parlay, unlike a regular parlay, a reduced payout will still be made even should some of the bets lose. Teasers. A teaser allows the bettor to combine his bets on two or more different games. The bettor can adjust the point spreads for the two games, but must get all the games correct to win and recognizes a lower return in comparison to parlays. If bets. An if bet consists of at least two straight bets joined together by an if clause which determines the wager process.If the player’s first selection complies with the condition (clause), then the second selection will have action; if the second selection complies with the condition, then the third selection will have action and so on. Run line, puck line or goal line bets. These are wagers offered as alternatives to straight-up/moneyline prices in baseball, hockey or soccer, respectively. These bets feature a fixed point spread that ( usually) offers a higher payout for the favorite and a lower payout for the underdog (both in comparison to the moneyline). Future wagers.While all sports wagers are by definition on future events, bets listed as â€Å"futures† generally have a long-term horizon measured in weeks or months; for example, a bet that a certain NFL team will win the Super Bowl for the upcoming season. Such a bet must be made before the season starts in September, and winning bets will not pay off until the conclusion of the Super Bowl in January or February (although many of the losing bets will be clear well before then and can be closed out by the book). Odds for such a bet generally are expressed in a ratio of units paid to unit wagered.The team wagered upon might be 50-1 to win the Super Bowl, which means that the bet will pay 50 times the amount wagered if the team does so. Head-to-Head. In these bets, bettor predicts competitors results against each other and not on the overall result of th e event. One example are Formula One races, where you bet on two or three drivers and their placement among the others. Sometimes you can also bet a â€Å"tie†, in which one or both drivers either have the same time, drop out, or get disqualified. Totalizators.In totalizators (sometimes called flexible-rate bets) the odds are changing in real-time according to the share of total exchange each of the possible outcomes have received taking into account the return rate of the bookmaker offering the bet. For example: If the bookmakers return percentage is 90%, 90% of the amount placed on the winning result will be given back to bettors and 10% goes to the bookmaker. Naturally the more money bet on a certain result, the smaller the odds on that outcome become. This is similar to parimutuel wagering in horse racing and dog racing. 2nd half bets.A 2nd half(Second half) bet is also sometimes called a halftime bet. This bet is placed only at halftime of a particular sporting event. Th is bet can be placed on the spread(Line) or over/under. The resulting bet that is placed is won or lost only on the points scored by both teams in the second half only. In-play betting. In-play betting is a feature offered by some online sports books that enables bettors to place new bets while a sporting event is in progress. [edit]Bookmaking The general role of the bookmaker is to act as a market maker for sports wagers, most of which have a binary outcome: a team either wins or loses.The bookmaker accepts both wagers, and maintains a spread (the vigorish) which will ensure a profit regardless of the outcome of the wager. The Federal Wire Act of 1961 was an attempt by the US government to prevent illegal bookmaking. [1] However, this Act does not apply to other types of online gambling. [2] The Supreme Court has not ruled on the meaning of the Federal Wire Act as it pertains to online gambling. Bookmakers usually hold a 11-10 advantage over their customers—for small wagers it is closer to a 6-5 advantage—so the bookmaker will most likely survive over the long term.Successful bookmakers must be able to withstand a large short term loss. (Boyd, 1981) Many of the leading gambling bookmakers from the 1930s to the 1960s got their start during the prohibition era of the 1920s. They were oftentimes descendants of the influx of immigrants coming into the USA at this time. Although the common stereotype is that these bookies were of Italian descent, it has been proven that many of the leading bookies were of eastern European Jewish Ancestry. (Davies, 2001) Mobile gambling From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaMobile gambling refers to playing games of chance or skill for money by using a remote device such as a tablet computer, smartphone or a mobile phone with a wireless internet connection. Over a dozen mobile casinos are operating as of March 2011. [edit]Market In 2005, Jupiter Research forecast that global mobile gambling services would generate reve nues of more than $19. 3 billion US dollars by 2009. [1] In 2010, Gartner analysts showed the 2009 global mobile gambling revenues at $4. 7 billion and forecast $5. 6 billion for 2010. 2] Such a large discrepancy between the 2005 forecast and the 2009 reality is attributed to the unexpected 2006 US prohibition of all internet based gambling. The mobile gambling market, as of 2011 is still in flux. The European Union still does not have a unified mobile gambling legislative framework in place. Each European country has their own set of widely different laws which regulate mobile gambling ranging from Finland where a government monopoly operates internet casinos to Norway which is in favor of complete prohibition of online gambling. [edit]Market projectionsAccording to a Juniper Research report[3] released in September 2010 the total sum wagered on mobile casino games is expected to surpass $48 billion US dollars by 2015. The report bases this prediction on (1) the high growth rates o f mobile casinos, lotteries and sports betting providers in major emerging markets and China; (2) liberalization of mobile gambling legislation in Europe; (3) United States repealing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, permitting people in the US to legally gamble online again. [3] A 2010 Gartner forecast sees 2014 global mobile gambling revenues reach $11. billion dollars. [2] [edit]Mobile casino games According to a February 2010 comScore MobiLens study[4] of the U. S. mobile gaming market, smartphone subscribers are much more likely to play mobile casino games than subscribers of generic phones. The study revealed that 7. 6% of smartphone subscribers and 1. 2% of generic mobile subscribers played mobile casino games within a three month time frame. [4] As of March 2011, there is a total of approximately 100 casino style mobile games which permit the use of real money:[citation needed] BaccaratBaccarat[1] is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. There are three popular variants of the game: punto banco (or â€Å"North American baccarat†), baccarat chemin de fer, and baccarat banque (or â€Å"à   deux tableaux†). Punto banco is strictly a game of chance, with no skill or strategy involved; each player's moves are forced by the cards the player is dealt. In baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, by contrast, both players can make choices, which allows skill to play a part. Despite this, the winning odds are in favour of the bank, with a house edge no lower than around 1 per cent.Baccarat is a comparing card game played between two hands, the â€Å"player† and the â€Å"banker. † Each baccarat coup has three possible outcomes: â€Å"player† (player has the higher score), â€Å"banker,† and â€Å"tie. † Blackjack From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the gambling game. For other uses, see Black Jack (disambiguation). Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. [1] Blackjack is a comparing card game between a player and dealer, meaning that players compete against the dealer but not against any other players.Blackjack is played with one or more decks of 52 cards. The object of the game is to reach 21 points or to reach a score higher than the dealer without exceeding 21. The player or players are dealt an initial two card hand and add the total of their cards. Face cards (Kings, Queens, and Jacks) are counted as ten points. The player and dealer can count his own ace as 1-point or 11 points. All other cards are counted as the numeric value shown on the card. After receiving their initial two cards, players have the option of getting a â€Å"hit,† which means taking an additional card.In a given round, the player or the dealer wins by having a score of 21 or by having the highest score that is less than 21. Scoring higher than 21 (called â€Å"busting† or â€Å"going bu st†) results in a loss. A player may win by having any final score less than 21 if the dealer busts. If a player holds an ace valued as 11, the hand is called â€Å"soft†, meaning that the player cannot go bust by taking an additional card; otherwise, the hand is â€Å"hard†. The dealer has to take hits until his cards total 17 or more points. (In some casinos, the dealer also hits on a â€Å"soft† 17, e. g. nitial ace and six. ) Players who do not bust and have a total higher than the dealer, win. The dealer will lose if he or she busts, or has a lesser hand than the player who has not busted. If the player and dealer have the same point total, this is called a â€Å"push† and the player typically does not win or lose money on that hand. Many rule variations of blackjack exist. Since the 1960s, blackjack has been a high profile target of advantage players, particularly card counters, who track the profile of cards that have been dealt and adapt the ir wager and playing strategies accordingly.Other casino games inspired by blackjack include Spanish 21 and pontoon. The recreational British card game of black jack is a shedding-type game and unrelated to the subject of this article. Craps is a dice game in which the players make wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other (street craps, also known as shooting dice or rolling dice) or a bank (casino craps, also known as table craps).Because it requires little equipment, street craps can be played in informal settings Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. To determine the winning number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track ru nning around the circumference of the wheel.The ball eventually loses momentum and falls on to the wheel and into one of 37 (in French/European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel. Sic bo (), also known as tai sai (), dai siu (), big and small or hi-lo, is an unequal game of chance played with three dice, and of ancient Chinese origin. Grand hazard and chuck-a-luck are variants, and of English origin. The literal meaning of sic bo is â€Å"precious dice†, while dai siu and dai sai mean â€Å"big [or] small†. Sic bo is a casino game, popular in Asia and widely played (as dai siu) in casinos in Macau.It is played in the Philippines as hi-lo[citation needed]. It was introduced into the USA by Chinese immigrants in the early 20th century, and can now be found in most American casinos. Since 13 May 2002, it can be played legally in licensed casinos in the United Kingdom, under The Gaming Clubs (Bankers' Games) (Amendment) Regulat ions 2002 (Statutory Instrument 2002/1130). Gameplay involves betting that a certain condition (e. g. that all three dice will roll the same) will be satisfied by a roll of the dice. [1] [edit]VariantsGrand Hazard is a gambling game of English origin, also played with three dice. (It is distinct from Hazard, another gambling game of Old English origin, played with two dice. ) The dice are rolled down a chute containing a series of inclined planes that tumble the dice as they fall[citation needed]. Chuck-a-luck, also known as birdcage, is a variant in the United States, which has its origins in grand hazard. The three dice are kept in a device that resembles a wire-frame bird cage and that pivots about its centre. The dealer rotates the cage end over end, with the dice landing on the bottom.Chuck-a-luck usually features only the single-number wagers, sometimes with an additional wager for any â€Å"triple† (all three dice showing the same number) with odds of 30 to 1 (or there abouts). Chuck-a-luck was once common in Nevada casinos but is now rare, frequently having been replaced by sic bo tables A slot machine (American English), informally fruit machine (British English), the slots (Canadian English), poker machine or â€Å"pokies† (slang) (Australian English and New Zealand English) or simply slot (American English), is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed.Slot machines are also known as one-armed bandits because they were originally operated by a lever on the side of the machine (the arm) instead of a button on the front panel, and because of their ability to leave the gamer penniless (bandit). Many modern machines still have a legacy lever in addition to the button. Slot machines include a currency detector that validates the coin or money inserted to play. The machine pays off based on patterns of symbols visible on the front of the machine when it stops. Modern computer technology has resulted in many variations on the slot machine concept.Slot machines are the most popular gambling method in casinos and constitute about 70 percent of the average US casino's income. Keno (pron. : /ki?no?/) is a lottery or bingo gambling game often played at modern casinos, and is also offered as a game in some state lotteries. A traditional live casino keno game uses a circular glass enclosure called a â€Å"bubble† containing 80 balls which determine the ball draw result. Each ball is imprinted with a number 1 through 80. During the ball draw, a blower pushes air into the bubble and mixes the balls.A â€Å"caller† presses a lever opening a tube, where the balls lift one at a time into a â€Å"V† shaped tube called the â€Å"rabbit ears†. The caller and a â€Å"verifier† record each of 20 balls drawn, and the computerized keno system calculates all wagers based on the numbers drawn. Players wager by marking an â€Å"S† over the â€Å"spot† choices on a blank keno ticket form with 80 numbered selection boxes (1 to 80). After all players successfully place their wagers, the casino draws 20 balls (numbers) at random. Some casinos automatically call the ball draw at preset timed intervals regardless of whether or not players are waiting to place a wager.Each casino sets its own series of pay scale choices called â€Å"paytables†. The player is paid based on how many numbers drawn match the numbers selected on the ticket and according to the paytable selected with regard to the wager amount. Players will find a wide variation of keno paytables from casino to casino and a large deviation in the house edge set for each of those paytables. Additionally, each casino typically offers many different paytables and specialty keno bets for customers to choose from, each with its own unique house edge.No two casinos' keno paytables are identical. There are several Reno and Las Vegas casinos offering as many as 20 or 30 diffe rent paytables from which the player can choose. [citation needed] The house edge ranges from less than 4%[1] to well over 35%. [2] The typical house edge for non-slot casino games is between 0% and 5%. [3] With 227 outlets nationwide, e-Games is an Internet outlet dedicated to casino games. With technology provided by PhilWeb, patrons can choose from over 300 casino games, including baccarat, blackjack, various slot machine games, video poker and others.Most e-Games cafes operate 24/7. You can easily switch from one game to another with just a click. Experience the comfort and privacy at e-Games nearest you. pinas online games Individuals registered with DTI or companies registered with SEC may apply to become authorized e-Games outlet Operators. The e-Games operator handles the day-to-day operations of the e-Games and gets a monthly commission based on winnings. A typical e-Games outlet would have at least ten (10) ordinary PCs connected in a Local Area Network setup and a cashier 's terminal.At any given time, there are at least only three (3) staff in the outlet. Thus, overhead is minimal. Most e-Games outlets are open 24/7 and every transaction is in cash. Globally, sports betting accounts for a huge chunk of all gambling revenue. In the Philippines, legal sports betting is still in its infancy, however, the sports psyche of the Filipino has become broader and more open to games other than basketball. Realizing the potential inherent in Filipinos’ expanding sports interest, PhilWeb partnered with MegaSportsWorld (MSW) to offer sports betting via our network of e-Games cafes.MSW is a fully licensed sports book registered in the Philippines. It operates within strict guidelines of licenses issued by PAGCOR, the main regulatory body for the gaming industry in the Philippines. Betting is simple. A punter chooses from a list of sports events, game formats, and their corresponding odds. Once the punter is ready to make a bet, he hands his money to the cas hier. The cashier then enters the bet into the system and prints out a ticket, which also serves as the claim stub for any winning bets.PhilWeb Corporation is the leading gaming technology provider in the Asia Pacific Region. We are listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE:WEB). PhilWeb excels in the gaming industry by providing superior and innovative products with the highest standards of customer service. We establish strategic partnerships to ensure a fair, secure and legal gaming experience for our customers. We create a rewarding and dynamic work environment where we attract, retain and motivate highly competent, passionate and innovative people, and deliver above-market value for our shareholders.PhilWeb today serves over 40,000 customers a day at our nationwide network of online cafà ©s, sports betting kiosks and mobile games in the Philippines. In the Asia Pacific region, we have just begun serving customers in Guam, Timor Leste and Cambodia, markets which will exponen tially increase our customer base. We are also negotiating similar contracts in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laos and Palau, as we go to press. We are a lean organization, with just 300 employees at the end of September 2012, but a highly productive one. In the last five years, we have generated

Intro to business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Intro to business - Essay Example The rationale behind this is that I also follow rules, guidelines and policies within a system and prefer not to deviate. I still do allow some creativity in decision making but I make sure I am within the given set of parameters. Perhaps, my personality type is beneficial to me since I stick to order and structure which gives me discipline. It is important for an employee to have self-discipline such as coming to work in time. Over-all, I believe the assessments are reliable and valid since they exhibited most of my personality attributes. The assessments clearly identified my characteristics which I found amusing at the same time informative. Because of the assessments, I learned more about myself and the result gives me an idea on how I could adopt to other personality types in a workplace setting. 2. Yes, I would use the assessment since it provides me a good background of the person. Personality tests are used nowadays by companies to ascertain of the person can fit into the right job. The Jung Typology Test gives the manager a good insight on how the prospective employee interacts with other people. If I were hiring for a customer-service oriented job, I might not prefer to hire introverts with a high score since they may not be able to handle complaints well. Their performance behavior may suffer since they get stressed out easily by interaction. Although, it actually depends on the industry when using these assessments. If I were to hire a programmer, then I need to have one who has a certain personality type. One who needs not much interaction but would rather be left alone doing his work. If I make a mistake in matching the personality type with the job, then counterproductive behaviors maybe exhibited by the employee since they get demotivated. 3. I am a Theory Y manager. I believe that people, when given a sense of responsibility that matches their skills and knowledge can be very productive. People are not inherently lazy,

Critical appraisal of a research paper Assignment

Critical appraisal of a research paper - Assignment Example 1). The research paradigm: The introduction section of an article is aimed at identifying the research problem, to determine the magnitude of the problem in the society and to provide the rationale behind carrying out the study, as suggested by Parahoo (2006). In this paper, the background to the research objective is clearly and adequately explained in the introduction. The authors shed light on both the significance of narratives in an individual’s lives and the role of narratives in describing ones experience of a chronic illness in a precise manner. Moreover, they also describe the DIPEx database which was used to extract the information of the patient’s narratives utilized in this study (Cheshire & Ziebland, 2005, p. 1). The most important aspect of this study is narratives. The authors have used the classic definition of narrative as defined in previous literature and have discussed the different sections and forms of narratives, in order to provide the readers wi th a sufficient background to aid their understanding of the upcoming sections of the research paper. Thus, overall, the authors have provided sufficient background and have laid down the conceptual framework for this research, which is a requirement of any good research paper (Holliday, 2004, p. 68) Research questions /hypotheses/ issues: Although the authors provided a justifiable rationale for conducting this study (Treloar, Champness, Simpson, & Higginbotham, 2000, p. 347) in the introduction section of their paper, they have not provided any properly formulated research hypothesis. They do mention the issue that they want to address, i.e.: to examine how individuals express their experiences of illnesses using narratives, but the research question itself is not expressed in an explicit, unambiguous form for the readers. Methodology used: This study aimed to examine the various aspects of subjective experiences of patients. Thus, for such a study, where subjective experiences of study participants are being elucidated, the qualitative methodology is best suited and the authors’ use of this methodology is justified. Data collection methods:Â   The researchers used convenient, purposive sampling. The study sample was limited to just two participants. There was no clear sampling method or strategy defined, which is an important requirement for research papers (Greenhalgh, 2006, p. 172). No inclusion or exclusion criteria for selecting the study participants were mentioned. The authors used convenient sampling and arbitrarily chose two patients. They justify their selection by mentioning that these two patients were chosen because they had similar medical histories. However, this methodology is not explained clearly enough to be replicated by other researchers in future studies. In addition, although the subjects were similar in terms of their medical history, they might vary in other demographic aspects such as age, ethnicity, socioeconomic background , etc, about which no information has been provided (except for age). Since these factors also have a role in shaping peoples perspectives

How to Do Well On a Job Interview Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

How to Do Well On a Job Interview - Assignment Example Job interviews are means that companies use to identify the right candidates for the vacant posts in the companies. The only way the interviewer is able to identify the personality of the interviewee is by judging their communication skills. Communication is divided into two major parts that are verbal and non-verbal. The interviewee should be able to use them to ensure that he impresses the interviewer in a professional way to increase his chances to acquire the job. The non-verbal communication is mainly by the facial expression and body posture; the interviewee should smile and appear serious when answering the questions (Nieremberg, 2005). The interviewee should sit in a way that he does not appear nervous but should maintain eye contract to read the non-verbal language of the interviewer. Verbal communication includes talking and listening. The interviewee should portray his ability to do both in a professional manner. The interviewee should not interrupt the interviewer or try to change the topic the interviewer is willing to discuss since you should let the interviewer run the interview. The interviewee should ensure that he is audible, clear, direct to the point, use complete sentences, maintain professionalism, do not use acronyms, listen and ask questions when offered the opportunity to become more conversant with the company (Nieremberg, 2005). Confusion is one of the key reasons that an interviewee will fail in the interview. The confusion tints the appearance of the interviewee, making him appear unprofessional. To boost one’s appearance, the interviewee should practice for the interview by noting the most frequent basic questions to ensure that he is not caught off-guard during the interview, which will tamper with his appearance. The dressing code of the company is key to ensure that the interviewee does not appear out of place during the interview. Researching on the company and practicing with friends on

The ethical issues associated with conservatism Essay

The ethical issues associated with conservatism - Essay Example A person may not automatically hate the past and may wish for the technical progress for the people’s good. However, he normally tends to have a discrimination against the conservative attitude. The reason behind this may be the fact that he tends to get impacted by the acquisitive thesis which states that conserving is detrimental to the changing life and this may lead to immobility. It can be stated that the conservatives are supposed to consider preserving their social privilege, no matter how small it is. Further, in an attempt of preserving the question to be addressed if the object to be preserved is worthy of preserving then it goes by default (Burckhardt, â€Å"What is Conservatism†). More precisely the term ‘conservatism’ can be explained as the political philosophy favoring the traditions in the light of exterior factor of change. It can be useful in situation when deep-seated social change is triggered. It is a well known fact that distinct cultures have distinct values and as a result the different goals are pursued by the conservatives of different cultures. The components of numerous ideologies and philosophies are integrated by different forms of the conservatism, and thus the conservatism has an impact upon them. There are numerous types of conservatism approaches. They are cultural conservatism, social conservatism, religious conservatism, paleo-conservatism, fiscal conservatism, neo-conservatism and bio-conservatism. Among them social conservatism is taken for the purpose of the study (Philosophy basics, â€Å"Introduction†). ... Ethical Issues Related to Social Conservatism After having understood the meaning of the conservatism, it would be prudent to comprehend the term social conservatism and the ethical issues surrounding it. With the assistance of the laws and regulations the social conservative tries to preserve the traditional morality as well as the social ethnicity. It is believed by the social conservatives that the intervention of the government is not the problem, however liberal use of the government may assist in maintaining order and thus increasing morality in the society. This can be considered as one of the pros of the social conservatives. However, the social conservatives may also tend to be the weakest when they are considered along the gamut of the economic conservatism since it tends to counter the free trade, immigration and others. There are various other social issues. When the business houses tend to focus only on profit making without paying due attention towards the society then it can be considered as one of the ethical issues related to social conservatism. This may lead to gain of one group while loss for the other (Azari, R., â€Å"Current security management & ethical issues of information technology†). It is worth while to be mentioned that the social conservatives’ intention may tend to be good and pure as that of the liberals who have their own collectivism and social programs. However, the fact is that the social conservatives don’t inject their own ideas rather try to introduce various bills and legislations that tend to achieve the opposite of what the social conservatives had intended to achieve. The government, instead of acting as a symbol of hope tries to inject a dose of immorality into the society. This tends to change with the