Honduras Gambling Age
For the casino lover Belize has limited facilities, but they can be a welcome break from too much sea and sand, or from the cloistered cruise ship casinos. The biggest is at the Princess Hotel and Casino in Belize City. It’s the nearest you will get to a Las Vegas style casino in this part of Central America. Tim Cahill will travel to Honduras a day later than the rest of the Socceroos squad. Credit: AAP The FFA is gambling that he has, and has rolled the dice with its talismanic striker and decided to. The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the control and legal responsibilities of their parents or guardian over them.
The Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) is the minimum age at which a person is legally allowed to handle or consume alcoholic drinks. The laws on MLDA cover a wide range of issues including when and where alcohol can be consumed and vary from country to country. The majority of the countries have set MLDA at 18 or 19 years. The United States (except Puerto Rico and Virginia’s Island) and 19 other countries, especially Asian countries, have the highest set MLDA. However, some areas in India have drinking ages as high as 25-30 years. In some countries, especially Muslim countries, alcohol is completely banned, with an exception sometimes made for non-Muslims.
Overview of Minimum Drinking Age Around the World
Youngest Drinking Age
Although the majority of the countries around the world have set the MLDA at 18 years, 16 years is considered the youngest drinking age. At least eight countries and regions have set their MLDA at 16 years. These countries include Barbados, the British Virginia Islands, Cuba, Luxembourg, Panama, Serbia, Serbia, and Zimbabwe. In these countries, it is an offense for anyone to sell, give, or offer alcoholic drinks to people under the age of 16 years. However, in Zimbabwe, a person is allowed to sell or supply alcoholic drinks to children under 16 years upon the proof of a written document signed by parents or guardians of the minor known to the person selling the alcohol.
Drinking Age in Italy
Italy has set a minimum legal drinking age at 16 years, one of the lowest MLDA in the world. In 2002, Renato Balduzzi, the then Health Minister proposed to raise the minimum drinking age to 18 years. However, selling alcoholic drinks to children under the age of 18 years in premises is considered illegal and attracts a fine of €250 to €1000. Giving alcohol to those under 16 years is considered a crime and is punishable by up to one-year imprisonment. Despite the regulations, many minors enjoy alcoholic drinks, especially in the company of their parents and during social events.
Drinking Age in Russia
Most Russians believe that the minimum drinking age in the country is 18 years. However, there are no laws or regulations prohibiting minors from taking alcoholic drinks. On the contrary, selling alcohol to persons under the age of 18 years is prohibited by federal and regional laws and may attract fines and even jail terms.
Why Minimum Legal Drinking Age?
Several reasons have been given for the laws and regulations behind the minimum legal drinking age. For some people, introducing minors to alcohol interferes with their normal expected activities such as studies. Alcohol may also influence their behaviors. However, the commonly known reason for banning minors from taking alcohol until they attain a certain age is the effect of alcohol as on the brain in adolescents. Since their brains are still maturing, alcohol may harm their memory and long-term thinking. Alcohol may also cause complications such as liver failure and hormonal imbalance in minors due to the constant changes in their bodies as they mature, especially during puberty.
Drinking Ages Around the World
Country | Drinking Age |
---|---|
Afghanistan | Alcohol Prohibited |
Albania | 18 |
Algeria | Alcohol Prohibited |
American Samoa | 21 |
Andorra | 18 |
Angola | No Drinking Age |
Anguilla | No Drinking Age |
Antigua and Barbuda | No Drinking Age |
Argentina | 18 |
Armenia | 18 |
Australia | 18 |
Austria | 18* |
Azerbaijan | 18 |
Bahamas | 18 |
Bahrain | No Drinking Age |
Bangladesh | Alcohol Prohibited* |
Barbados | 16 |
Belarus | 18 |
Belgium | 18* |
Belize | 18 |
Bermuda | 18 |
Bhutan | 18 |
Bolivia | 18 |
Bosnia and Herzevogina | 18 |
Botswana | 18* |
Brazil | 18 |
British Virgin Islands | 16 |
Brunei | 17* |
Bulgaria | 18 |
Burundi | 18* |
Cambodia | No Drinking Age |
Cameroon | 21* |
Canada | 19* |
Cape Verde | 18 |
Cayman Islands | 18 |
Central African Republic | 15* |
Chile | 18 |
China | 18 |
Colombia | 18 |
Comoros | 1 |
Costa Rica | 18 |
Croatia | 18 |
Cuba | 16 |
Cyprus | 17 |
Czech Republic | 18 |
Denmark | 18* |
Dominican Republic | 18 |
Ecuador | 18 |
Egypt | 21 |
El Salvador | 18 |
Equatorial Guinea 21 | |
Eritrea | 18 |
Estonia | 18 |
Ethiopia | 15 |
Falkland Islands | 18 |
Fiji | 18 |
Finlan | 18* |
France | 18 |
Gabon | 18 |
Gambia | 17 |
Georgia | 18 |
Germany | 18* |
Ghana | 18 |
Gibraltar | 18 |
Grenada | 18 |
Guam | 21 |
Guatemala | 18 |
Guinea-Bissau | No Drinking Age |
Guyana | 18* |
Haiti | 18 |
Honduras | 18 |
Hong Kong | 18 |
Hungary | 18 |
Iceland | 20 |
India | 18* |
Indonesia | 21 |
Iran | Alcohol Prohibited |
Iraq | Alcohol Prohibited |
Ireland | 18 |
Israel | 18 |
Italy | 16 |
Japan | 20 |
Jordan | 18 |
Kazakhstan | 21 |
Kenya | 18* |
Kosovo | No Drinking Age |
Kuwait | Alcohol Prohibited |
Kyrgyzstan | 18 |
Latvia | 18 |
Lebanon | 18 |
Lesotho | 18 |
Liberia | 18 |
Libya | Alochol Prohibited |
Liechtenstein | 18* |
Lithuania | 20 |
Luxembourg | 16 |
Macau | No Drinking Age |
Macedonia | 18 |
Malawi | 18 |
Malaysia | 21 |
Maldives | Alcohol Prohibited* |
Malta | 17 |
Mexico | 18 |
Micronesia | 18 |
Moldova | 18 |
Mongolia | 18 |
Montenegro | 18 |
Mozambique | 18 |
Myanmar | 18 |
Nepal | 18 |
Netherlands | 18 |
New Zealand | 18 |
Nicaragua | 18* |
Niger | 18 |
Nigeria | 18 |
North Korea | 18 |
Northern Mariana Islands | 21 |
Norway | 18* |
Oman | 21 |
Pakistan | Alcohol Prohibited* |
Palau | 21 |
Palestine | 16 |
Panama | 18 |
Papua New Guinea | 18 |
Paraguay | 20 |
Peru | 18 |
Philippines | 18 |
Poland | 18 |
Puerto Rico | 18 |
Qatar | Alcohol Prohibited |
Republic of the Congo | 18 |
Rwanda | 18 |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 16 |
Samoa | 21 |
San Marino | 18 |
Saudi Arabia | Alcohol Prohibited |
Senegal | 18 |
Serbia | 16 |
Seychelles | 18 |
Singapore | 18 |
Slovakia | 18 |
Slovenia | 18 |
Solomon Islands | 21 |
Somalia | Alcohol Prohibited |
South Africa | 18 |
South Korea | 19 |
South Sudan | 18 |
Spain | 18 |
Sri Lanka | 21 |
Sudan | Alcohol Prohibited |
Swaziland | 18 |
Sweden | 18* |
Switzerland | 18* |
Syria | 18 |
Taiwan | 18 |
Tajikistan | 18 |
Tanzania | 18 |
Thailand | 20 |
Togo | No Drinking Age |
Tokelau | 18 |
Tonga | 18 |
Trindad and Tobago | 18 |
Tunisia | No Drinking Age |
Turk and Caicos Islands | 18 |
Turkey | 18 |
Turkmenistan | 18 |
Uganda | 18* |
Ukraine | 18 |
United Arab Emirates | 18* |
United Kingdom | 18* |
United States | 21 |
Uruguay | 18 |
Uzbekistan | 20 |
Vanuatu | 18 |
Venezuela | 18 |
Vietnam | 18 |
Western Sahara | No Drinking Age |
Yemen | Alcohol Prohibited |
Zambia | 18 |
Zimbabwe | 16 |
Honduras, officially known as the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America with a population of a little over 8 million people. Honduras has endured quite a bit of political strife over the years and remains one of the least developed nations in Latin America, and is also the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, second only to Haiti.
The per capita purchasing power GDP is less than $5000 a year here and about half of their population lives below the poverty line. So when it comes to their means to gamble, there is certainly a reduced means overall compared with a lot of countries in Latin America, and this is manifest in less gambling that takes place here, although Hondurans still like to gamble at least within their means. (1)
Not only does Honduras have a low average income, there is also a pretty big gap between the wealthy and the poor here, and they also have a very high unemployment rate, almost 30 percent.
Honduras does have legal gambling as well, and gambling has been going on here for a long time, and became regulated in 1977 when the government sought to have some casinos built to try to attract more tourists.
This ended up happening to some degree but the complaint is that the casinos are frequented mostly by Hondurans, and there is a movement to repeal the gambling laws since its felt that a lot of poor people gamble and there may be too high of a social cost involved, with people gambling away money that they really can’t afford to lose. (2)
Politicians here also complain that the tax rate on gambling is too low and there’s also a movement to look to increase this, although it’s often not quite this simple, as if you set the tax rates too high this can cause a retraction in gambling and provide less revenue.
In any case, there has not been any changes to the law as of yet, and even making gambling illegal likely wouldn’t slow it down much, as laws aren’t really that well enforced here, and Honduras has the highest murder rate of any country in the world for instance, and some of this at least is due to the lack of policing that goes on here. So if they aren’t policing murders that much you can bet they wouldn’t police gambling very much if at all.
There is a total of 3 casinos in Honduras, located in 3 different cities, and they are all on the smaller side, although they do offer a good selection of games to gamble on. There are also several other unlicensed gambling establishments off the grid that cater to locals, although being unregulated, these places can be a little riskier, especially in a place where crime is pretty high as Honduras is. (3)
Tourists have to be careful in Honduras generally though, as there are quite a few cases of tourists being robbed, and with the high poverty rate here may people turn to crime to support themselves, and tourists are often easy marks. So caution is certainly advised, and the casinos are much safer places to play than off the grid locations to be sure. (4)
The safest place to gamble is of course in the comfort of your own home, although this requires internet access, and only about 18% of Hondurans have the ability to go online, and you also need the means to deposit as well.
However, provided one has access, one can gamble online more cheaply than at live gambling locations as the minimums are much lower, and you can make a little bit of money go a long way with online gambling if you choose the lower stakes.
Gambling Age Legal
Playing Poker in Honduras
Poker is a fairly popular game in Honduras, not as much as in some Latin American countries by any means, but the game has caught on somewhat at least. The casinos do offer poker, but most of it is casino poker, and there isn’t a lot of live head to head poker here.
Casino poker though isn’t that close to the real thing though, as it’s more like blackjack, where you play against the dealer and they pay certain amounts for certain hands, and this takes away a lot of the elements that you see in traditional poker, which really is a game of outplaying your opponents, and the hand you have often doesn’t matter, where it matters absolutely in casino poker.
Some of the off beat places may feature some poker as well, not a lot is known about these places though, although once again they are said to be fairly risky, so if you’re looking to play poker in Honduras, playing online is a much wiser choice.
There are 1.6 million people in Honduras that do have access to the internet though, which is a fairly big potential market anyway, poker does need to catch on more here before we see a significant amount of online players from here, but players do have full access to the best online sites out there, as gambling is fully legal here, including online poker.
So no online sites have any issues at all with taking players from Honduras, unlike a lot of countries where one or more of the major online poker sites no longer accepts players from the country. So that’s a plus for Honduran poker to be sure.
Top Online Poker Sites Accepting Players From Honduras
This one’s pretty easy, as once again, all the top online poker sites warmly welcome Hondurans, so it’s just a matter of us telling you what the best online poker sites are period.
So here’s our top 5 recommendations for you, and all of these sites are top notch and all well worth out trying if you haven’t tried one or more of them before, and if that is the case, you are fortunate, as all offer new players nice welcome packages including some free cash to thank you for trying them.
888 Poker has been honing their craft for almost 15 years now and they started out as one of the best online poker sites out there back in the day and they’ve only gotten better. This site is immensely popular now and has tons of traffic and offers some great poker overall.
Legal Gambling Age Pennsylvania
Party Poker is another long standing online poker site which has also gotten better over the years, and is extremely well run, has the latest technology as well, and is also out to show you why they think that they are the best. Like 888 Poker, they will also pay you to give them a chance to prove themselves.
Titan Poker and Bet 365 Poker also have a lot of traffic and game selection. The software here isn’t quite as nice as what you find at 888 and Party, but overall these are two very good online poker sites and the best 2 on the iPoker Network, the world’s largest.
Black Chip Poker has really climbed the rankings lately. Like the other 4, players can play in Spanish as well if they choose. Black Chip may not be as well known as the other 4 and may not have their extensive experience but they are still a poker site well worth trying out.
References:
1. Honduras
2. Honduras Politicians Call For Gaming Law Repeal
3, Honduras Casinos
4. Crime in Honduras
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Gambling Age Louisiana
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