Been doing interviews all day, including one with the BBC, which should air tonight.

Here’s the statement I issued through Cato:

This bill is paternalistic, moralizing big government at its worst. It won’t eradicate online gambling, it will only make those gambling sites that are incorporated and publicly traded and regulated in countries like Great Britain unavailable to U.S. customers. But the $12 billion per year U.S. customers spend on online gaming won’t dry up. Instead, much of it will now go shady offshore sites based in countries less steeped in the rule of law, meaning more potential for fraud, abuse, preying on minors, and involvement from organized crime and terrorist groups. Meanwhile, state lotteries (which studies show are among the most addictive forms of gambling) will exploit the exemption the bill grants them, and continue to spend millions of dollars encouraging their citizens to engage in government-run gambling, with far less favorable odds.

From House Republican leaders’ baffling attempts to invoke the shame of Jack Abramoff and pass the ban in the name of “lobbying reform,” to Senator Frist attaching the ban to a port security bill late at night on the last day of Congress, nothing about the way the GOP has pushed this bill has been honest. It is the height of hubris that the last law enacted by a party beset by charges of corruption and abuse of power was a moralistic bill passing judgment on the millions of Americans who play online poker and other games recreationally and responsibly.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 2:41 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.