You can watch video of my brief CNBC debate with Rep. Goodlatte here.

I only had time for one shot, but it looks as if I at least irritated him a bit. Which is always a good thing.

The Congressman wanted this whole interview to be about how Jack Abramoff originally derailed his effort to ban online gambling, and how he, Rep. Goodlatte, is now a savior of sorts, purging the party of Abramoff-ick by reintroducing the legislation. Note also that he begins the interview by talking about how support for the bill is so overwhelming, and its chances of being passed so inevitable, we might as well not even debate its content.

He also obfuscated a couple of key points. First, he bizarrely said that online gambling isn’t already illegal. It is. That’s why all of the online wagering sites have set up shop overseas. And it’s why their executives aren’t allowed to step foot on U.S. shores, unless they’re prepared to be arrested. Goodlatte’s bill takes things a step further, and forces credit card companies to finance a system that would bar their members from using their services to wager online. That won’t stop online gambling of course. It just means that U.S. gamblers now will not only do business with online gaming corporations that are overseas, and not subject ot U.S. courts, regulators, and jurisdiction, they’ll have to do business with online wire services that are overseas as well.

In other words, Goodlatte’s bill won’t ban online gambling, it’ll just make it a lot riskier, it’ll push it underground, and it’ll make it easier for organized crime and international terrorist organizations to tap the $12 billion U.S. consumers wager online each year.

Which of course gives no choice but to ask, why does Rep. Goodlatte hate America?

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 19th, 2006 at 7:44 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Gambling, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.