Ethical Dilemmas in Online Gambling Businesses

Ethic Essay
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Ethics Essay
Ethical Dilemmas
One of the ethical dilemmas presented in the case is how players below 18 years managed to play games on the website. The website is designed to only allow people over 18 years to play games. The gaming company has tried to counter this by using a document to verify the age of people who are supposed to play on their website, but users successfully bypassed the system. This shows the level of dilemma in this situation because the website is responsible for ensuring every user is an adult. The website's current state presents a dilemma on who should be responsible for protecting minors against gaming. If a minor can bypass the age verification process, the website has failed to protect minors against using their services. The website blames the children for having bypassed the age verification system is made. As a result, the website requires payment from the children's parents. It is a dilemma as to who should be compensating the other party. The website allowed minors to play the games, and therefore, they are ethically required to compensate for the infringement of age rights. On the other hand, children are not allowed to play the games and could be ethically liable for compensating the gaming company.
Another dilemma is whether the parents should compensate the website, yet the gaming took place without their consent. There is a problem with consent in cases such as this, as minors cannot decide to pay for games. This could mean that parents should be responsible for compensating for any losses incurred by their children's actions on the website. The ethical issues that arise from the above case are whether minors should be held to a different standard and the responsibility of parents and the gaming industry. The current online gaming system is set up in such a way to allow minors access without parental consent. Hence, this questions the role of parents in controlling how their children use such websites. It is a dilemma whether the parent is responsible for the loss incurred or whether the website should compensate the parents.
Stakeholders Involved
Stakeholders are the individuals responsible for the case. In this case, the site owners, Mark and Jason, make the key stakeholders. The other stakeholders involve the minors, Alan, Roger, and Jacob. The minors' parents are also key stakeholders since they are involved in the compensation process.
Alternative Courses of Action
The first alternative is for the parents to compensate the website. According to state laws, it is illegal for minors to participate in gambling (Belk, 2021). Therefore, the children committed a crime punishable by the law. Hence, their parents should compensate the company. The main advantage of this alternative is that it would prevent further lawsuits from taking place. For instance, the parents might be held responsible for allowing their children to access a betting site and make payments using personal credit cards. The parents are responsible for ensuring that their unauthorized parties do not have access to their credit cards. The second alternative is for the gaming company to c...