If there was one sure Washington bet other than various moves against adult entertainment on- and offline, it was moves against Internet gambling. Various measures are making their Capitol Hill rounds aiming to make it illegal to use credit cards or electronic fund transfers on behalf of gaming activities. But will they go all the way to signed law?
"There's a good chance it could go somewhere this year but it has the same problems it's had in the past, and that's that no one really wants to get rid of Internet gambling," Interactive Gaming Council lobbyist Dan Walsh told Fox News May 28 about the measures. "I don't think there are many members of Congress who get up in the morning and worry about an adult waking up and once a week betting $50 on a hand of blackjack," he added.
Has he spoken to Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) lately? "The very nature of gambling, with its great potential for fraud and corruption, demand that it be regulated as it now is in all jurisdictions," Bachus told Fox. "Cyber gambling is the crack cocaine of gambling and will create a new generation of addicts unless we stop it."
Indeed, if any sort of federal cybergambling restriction or ban passes and is signed by the President, it would become the first time Congress has tried to regulate the Internet outside of trying it with adult entertainment, Fox said.
Cybergambling opponents tend to echo Bachus, saying it encourages kids to bet and hikes the chances of credit fraud and offshore criminal money laundering, as well as contributing to addiction. Cybergambling supporters reject those arguments on grounds that gamblers find ways around the law, and prefer regulation whereby cybergambling "can become more transparent and the money trail can be more easily followed while providing states with much-needed revenue," Fox said.
Such supporters get comfort from, among others, former Indiana attorney general Jeff Modisett. "I think it's very dangerous to start regulating and prohibiting activities on the Internet that are not, per say, illegal in the bricks and mortar world," he told Fox.
A bill to make it illegal for Internet gambling operations to take credit cards and ATM-type transfers is sponsored by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa). "Internet gambling serves no legitimate purpose in our society," Leach said in a statement. "It is a danger to family and society at large." The Leach bill passed the House Financial Services Committee in March, Fox said, and the House Judiciary Committee has since taken out allowances for "some forms...like state lotteries and horse racing."
