Jeff & Konnor's Blog

Shame on Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives for passing the “Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act” by a vote of 317-93. This bill declares almost all forms of online gambling illegal, forbids the use of credit cards or electronic funds transfers in online betting, and allows law enforcement to work with Internet providers to block access to gambling sites. Republicans voted 201-17 in favor of the bill, and Democrats voted 115-76 in favor.

Why do legislators think that online gambling must be stopped? House Speaker Dennis Hastert worries about “illegal gambling sites that offer fronts to criminals for money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing.” Is there anything we can’t tie to 9/11? If there’s a gambling site out there funneling money to terrorists, then by all means shut it down. I’m sure we have the monitoring in place to discover them. That doesn’t mean we have to shut down the entire industry.

Hastert also praised the bill for “protecting our children from gambling sites.” After pulling out the terrorism card, we get the “think of the children” card. There are plenty of computer programs capable of blocking gambling sites. If you don’t trust those programs, and you are concerned about your child’s actions on the Internet, then here’s an idea: don’t use the Internet as a babysitting service.

House Majority Leader John Boehner was “pleased that House Republicans continue to move substantive legislation upholding strong values.” Values and morality came up frequently during House debate. Representative Bob Goodlatte called online gambling “a scourge on our society.”

One question though. If online gambling is so awful and immoral, why did the bill specifically exempt horse racing and state-run lotteries? In fact, a potential amendment to the bill that would have removed these exclusions failed 114-297 (Republicans voted 9 to 210 against the amendment). Once again, your answer is hypocrisy. The special exemption for horse racing was needed to get the support of congressmen from “racing states” such as Kentucky. And state-run lotteries generate huge revenues for states that have them. Prohibiting people from purchasing tickets online would cut these revenues.

Summary: Gambling is an immoral scourge that helps terrorism and corrupts our children. But only if it’s online, not on horse racing, and not on a state-run lottery. We simply fail to understand how the American people continue to allow our elected officials to push such hypocritical, self-serving nonsense down our throats.

Exceptions or not, no government should have the authority to tell people how they can and cannot behave in the privacy of their own homes when their actions affect no one. The government should, perhaps, require online gambling sites to provide consumers with specific disclosures (such as odds of winning, or the “rake” taken by the site on a poker table), but once someone has been given the opportunity to learn all the facts about online gambling, that person should have every right to choose to do it, or not. It is detestable for the government to tell us that we can’t play in a $20 online poker tournament once a week; it is beyond outrageous to do so while making politically expedient exceptions.