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Beginning this week, the Gambling News and Odds Authority Gambling911.com will role out a new policy. Its writers have been given the directive to reference all Costa Rican and Panamanian-based online gambling sites as being “based in North America”.
“That’s because they are,” points out Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website.
The vast majority of online sports betting sites and Internet poker rooms based out of Costa Rica cater to US and Canadian customers. Likewise, most of the online gambling sites that accept bets from US and Canadian customers are based out of Costa Rica.
But with these tough economic times, citizens of the US are becoming more and more outspoken over jobs moving overseas to emerging economies with a more affordable labor force like China and my native India, not to mention the hot button topic of all these Mexicans and others from Central America crossing US borders illegally.
“After 10 years in business, Gambling911.com will now refer to these companies operating out of Costa Rica as ‘North American-based’,” O’Brien said.
Always trying to be “politically correct”, Ms. O’Brien denies this decision has anything to do with concerns over these online gambling companies operating from a banana republic.
“It’s a distance perception,” she says. “When you say your money is going to South America or even Europe, there is a ‘discomfort factor’. Costa Rica is just a two hour flight away from Miami and, yes, the nation is located in North America.”
While most US students are taught there are two continents in the Western Hemisphere, North America typically starts north of the Mexican border and includes Canada, though outside of Toronto, the kids are taught that mostly Eskimos live in that country. Canadians are those people who talk funny and say “eh” after every sentence. Aside from hockey, maple syrup and cold fronts, US youngsters only become more acquainted with our northern neighbor when they are old enough to start drinking Molson Ice.
Forget about those Central Americans. US students are for the most part either led to believe Central America is not part of any continent or those nations are simply lumped in with South America, which at one time was portrayed by media as pretty volatile with never-ending images of gun-toting guerillas ruling the jungles.
Those living in Latin America might dispute the notion that Costa Rica is based in North America. They are not taught a separation between North America and South America.
Technically all of Central America is the southernmost tip of North America, however, those living in Latin America are taught that there is only one continent in the Western Hemisphere, that being America.
The definition of a continent differs with your place of residence.
O’Brien elaborated: “Readers are often confused. You tell them these online sportsbooks are North American-facing companies but then they hear ‘Costa Rica’ and think they can’t open betting accounts there since the perception is that Costa Rica is exclusive to the Central American and South American market.”
O’Brien added that Gambling911.com has long shied away from referring to those living in the United States as “Americans” for “perception reasons” being that its readers include those living in Canada, Central and South America, all of whom can be classified themselves as “Americans”.
Christopher Columbus discovered both North America and South America in 1492, though he never found Canada. He spent two months in Costa Rica.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
