Apparently, it’s Internet 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.

What the hell does that mean? I’m having a hard time following the analogy. Crack doesn’t leave signs of use? Is it possible to get crack through the Internet? How is online gambling more like crack than, say, heroin?

What’s more, this guy has obviously never played a game of onilne poker in his life. It’s nothing like that. It’s easier to “click the mouse and lose your house” with an overly rash auction bet on eBay. But hey. It’s a cute line. ‘Cause see, it rhymes. Mouse. House. And it got the guy in the newspaper.

The latest version of the bill, due to be voted on tomorrow, contains exemptions for fantasy sports, horseracing (a top donor to sponsor Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s campaigns), and state lotteries. The Indian casinos and Vegas get left in the dust. At least this time.

The lotteries are the kicker. Apparently, when it comes to government priorities, generating revenue trumps paternalism.

One can only hope that the 15 million or so online gamblers take notice when this thing passes. It won’t likely get through the Senate this session. But it’ll be back after the elections.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 4:24 pm 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.