Bringing Back Legal Internet Gambling
Finally there’s some resistance to the “your-too-stupid-to-know-how-to-handle-your-money-so-we-will-protect-you” idiots in Washington. Barney Frank of Massachusetts (of all places), the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services committee, has backed legislation to legalize and regulate online gambling.
Said Rep. Barney Frank,
In the end, adults ought to be able to decide for themselves how they spend the money they earn themselves.
Amen! Lesson learned from alcohol prohibition and forgotten by Washington several times over: Don’t make criminals of a significant portion of Americans who are not hurting anyone doing what they want to do. If there are inherent dangers, regulate them out. As Jon Prideaux, a consultant who until last year was the head of Visa Europe’s Internet arm testified:
On the basis of my experience I can unequivocally state that Internet gambling can be regulated, and that abuses can be effectively regulated and controlled.
But then you have the Bible-thumping holier-than-thou idiot ranking Rebublican committee member from Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus:
Some claim that illegal Internet gambling is a victimless crime. In fact, the very real victims of illegal Internet gambling are the underage gamblers who by the tens of thousands are becoming compulsive and addicted gamblers. They can’t go in a casino and bet legally so they do it on the Internet. It’s prohibited and illegal, but they do it in their bedrooms and dorm rooms. It is a mushrooming epidemic leaving in its wake suicide, crimes, and financial and family tragedy. There are several instances of college students who committed suicide as a result of illegal Internet gambling and the debts they drove up. This is not a debate on whether it’s illegal or not. Every state in the union has a prohibition against it.
Oh really? Care to back up your statements with facts? A couple college kids kill themselves and they happen to be gambling online thus gambling online is has to be outlawed? Underage gambling is irrelevant to the issue since it is already proven by European countries that regulations can ensure kids do not have access. And if gambling is so bad, why is every state in the country running their own lotteries?
Other than religious moral grounds, which the government has no business being in, why is gambling online wrong? Who is paying you to be the moral judge? The race tracks and Vegas companies who are the only legal online gambling companies, who don’t want more competition?