Politicians legislating morality...always a bad outcome

At a time when our lawmakers should be grappling with the issues of global terrorism, energy costs, illegal immigration, and the axis of evil, we find them self-righteously wringing their hands about the evils of internet gambling...absolutely unbelievable!!!

Internet gambling is addictive, dangerous and should be outlawed, lawmakers argued Tuesday as the House took up a bill to prevent people from using credit cards or other payment forms to settle online wagers.

Wait a minute, why is internet gambling more addictive than casino or lotto gambling? It's still gambling. Why not outlaw all gambling of that's really what's bothering them? Alchohol and cigarettes are ten times more addictive, dangerous and thus should be outlawed by that ridiculous logic.

"The ease of Internet gambling poses a very serious threat to our families and our society," Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., said in support of the bill.
The legislation would clarify existing law by declaring Internet gambling illegal. It would cut off payments to betting Web sites and would allow authorities to work with Internet providers to block access to gambling Web sites.
Osborne and other bill supporters contend that it's too easy for online betters to lose money and to become addicted.

It's not internet gambling that poses a threat to families, it's the person who chooses to engage in e-gambling who threatens his family. That's like saying SUV's pose a threat to drivers of Yugo's...as if the driver's actions are inconsequential and SUV's have evil intentions in the mind of their own. Bad human behavior and decision making is the threat, not the SUV or gambling itself. To self-righteous conservatives like Tom Osborne, people have to be protected from themselves because they are incapable of making decisions. It doesn't matter that gambling in other forms is a perfectly legal activity. If it's gambling itself that is the threat, why not outlaw it all?

Critics point to exemptions that they say would allow online lotteries and Internet betting on horse racing to flourish while cracking down on other kinds of sports betting, casino games and card games like poker. Many conservatives back the bill on moral grounds, arguing that Internet betting is harmful to society.

That's splitting hairs. If you believe specific forms of internet gambling are bad for society based on which game is being played, then you must accept that all gambling is bad for society...it all constitutes gambling.

John Kindt, a business professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has studied the issue, calls the Internet "the crack cocaine" of gambling.
"There are no needle marks. There's no alcohol on the breath. You just click the mouse and lose your house," he said.

Nobody makes you click the mouse any more than somebody makes a crack-head stick the pipe in his mouth. You have make the choice to turn on the computer, log on to the gaming site, enter your password, type in your credit card number, and pull the handle on the virtual one-armed bandit. Every one of those actions represents a bad decision for that person. If he manages to not do even one of those things, he doesn't loose his house. I'm sorry, but that guy is trying very hard to be a gambling addict, just like the person who becomes a heroin addict. It takes a good two months of almost daily use to develop a physical addiction to heroin which means that you have to try very hard to become one. Literally, you have to wake up one day and decide, "I think I'll start today and in two months I will have made myself into a miserable heroin addict." Gambling requires a similar dedication to self destruction. People like that will mess up their lives anyway. Why punish the rest of us for the weaknesses of a few? I'll ask it again, why not ban all gaming if it's that bad for society?

Most reading this have already figured it out but for the others, here's why they don't ban all gambling: because the casino bosses contribute huge sums of money to the campaigns of representatives in Congress who sit on the committees which oversee gaming issues, and offshore internet gambling is a huge threat to casinos. Why go to Vegas or Atlantic City when you can do it from home? Tom Osborne doesn't think gambling is that bad, he's just saying that as his reason for outlawing internet gambling so he can keep the Vegas money flowing into his campaign coffers. And playing the credit card angle is the way to stop internet gambling without making the rest of the gaming industry look equally threatening to society. Nevermind that you use your credit card to get cash with which to gamble in Vegas.

Anytime a politician tells you that he's taking away your right to engage in an otherwise legal activity, simply because that activity is bad for you individually and society collectively...beware!

As a Republican, Tom Osborne should better grasp the concepts of personal responsibility and individual determination. The government should not be in the morality business any more than churches should be in the legislative business.