In a stunning display of legislative overreach, Congress has passed a bill banning Internet gambling, prohibiting banks and credit card companies from making payments to online gambling sites. Apparently, it isn’t enough to compel Americans to pay income taxes, but our government nannies must decide how we spend our income, as well.
Online gambling has been illegal in the U.S. since the inception of the Internet. But although gambling proprietors weren’t allowed to accept online bets, which simply encouraged them to set up shop in countries where gambling is legal, the government has essentially been unable to enforce the ban. So this bill was Congress’s way to outlaw the practice from the get-go.
However, this new law would shift the responsibility of enforcement from the government to private financial institutions. Not only will it place undue burdens on these companies by forcing them to comply or face prosecution, but it also potentially exposes private financial records to regular government inspection and will almost certainly impose compliance costs on these parties, which will undoubtedly be passed along to consumers.
This bill’s passage has already caused the online gaming industry to suffer economic losses, and it hasn’t even been signed yet by President Bush (though that’s a virtual certainty). So if you’re wondering what’s driving this ban, you’re not alone.
Despite the fact that millions of Americans enjoy honest gambling, this is most immediately a product of moralizing politicians like Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the bill’s Senate sponsor, who calls gambling a “social pathology.”
Furthermore, we’re told the ban is necessary because online gaming sites are unregulated, and ostensibly have the potential to become vehicles for fraud and money laundering operations for organized crime and international terrorists. This at least allowed Republican legislators to slip the bill into the Safe Accountability For Every Port (SAFE) Act, a Homeland Security appropriations bill. (I don’t know about you, but I know I’ll be sleeping more soundly at night now that my government is protecting me from menacing poker players!)
There may be some merit to the idea that unregulated overseas businesses could be a source of abuse. However, this is the case precisely because Congress forced the industry overseas in the first place.
One would think Congress would welcome the tax revenue and regulatory control that would accompany the legalization of online gambling. Unbelievably, however, it appears most lawmakers are willing to forgo a tax windfall if that means surrendering power to the rest of us. Sadly, far too many politicians seem to be ingrained with the notion that they were sent to Washington to make laws, and so to them the idea of repealing or even voting against those that expand government autonomy is anathema.
Sen. Kyl, who has been hailed by Club For Growth President Pat Toomey as “one of the most pro-growth members of the Senate,” unfortunately is one of the biggest cheerleaders of the Internet gambling ban and has said, “The enforcement provisions provided by this bill will go a long way to stop these illegal online operations.”
And this makes it right? These “illegal online operations” are illegal expressly because Congress has decided to make criminals of Americans who like to gamble. Passing this bill under the guise of “homeland security” is akin to passage of the Meth Act as part of the Patriot Act in 2005, and it smacks of nothing more than exploiting the war on terrorism to push an agenda that increasingly tramples individual liberties.
This gambling ban is a futile attempt to curb a behavior that drives a $12 billion industry, and it will do nothing but harm the economy and drive gamblers underground. So instead of legalizing online casinos, Sen. Kyl prefers to complain that American laws won’t be “enforced by a foreign government,” insisting that his bill will end most offshore gambling-evidently indifferent to the likelihood that legalization would bring companies back to the U.S.
Mr. Kyl and his cohorts are out to lunch. If it’s offshore gambling our congressmen are truly concerned about, they must realize that tearing up the bill instead and abandoning this draconian power trip would almost entirely eliminate it. Which means either they believe every American must conform to their sense of morality, or they’re so consumed by their own superiority they can’t stand the fact that the unwashed masses have eluded unnecessary laws.
It matters not why this bill has passed. It only matters that it has. Big Brother has inserted his authority yet again, and the march towards tyranny continues apace.
Trevor Bothwell maintains the Web log Who’s Your Nanny? at www.bothwell.typepad.com/whos_your_nanny.
