Republicans Botched Online Gambling Ban

November 20, 2007

Contrary to popular belief, online gambling is not illegal. The government passed a bill that said that the processing of payments for online gambling is illegal, but that does not make the games themselves illegal. But the fact that a bill was passed at all to attempt to ban online gambling is just one more way that the Republicans have put their nose in it.

There are countless attempts of the Republicans in office attempting to take away the personal freedoms of Americans, and online gambling is just the latest to be on their radar. If they thought that they would get a lot of support for banning online gambling, why did they pass it in the middle of the night attached to a port security bill?

The fact remains that they passed it knowing that the majority of Americans would have a problem with it, but they did not care. Then they made it seem that anyone who did have a problem with banning online gambling didn’t care about the security of their country because they say that this is the real reason why it was passed. However, they tried attaching it to other bills before they got it on one that had anything to do with homeland security, so what does that tell you?

They first tried to put online gambling in the same category as flag burning, gay marriage, and a bunch of other things that the Republicans have a problem with. The bill passed the House, but in the Senate they tried to attach it to a bill having to do with the troops, and when that failed they stuck online gambling with the ports.

Then they complained that the online gambling industry was untaxed and unregulated, but that is only because they tried to make it illegal. Now everyone simply puts their money in offshore accounts, even though the online casinos would love to pay taxes to the government. They asked to be regulated and taxed and the government said no. They need to make up their mind – as they can’t have it both ways.



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