The proposed federal ban on online gambling introduced into the House of Representatives by Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and in the US Senate by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has put the poker community in a state of relative unease; rekindling fears of UIGEA and Black Friday.
So let’s see if we can set a few minds at ease and explain precisely why this legislation faces an ever-growing list of insurmountable problems, and why it is looking more and more like a long shot each and every day –not that it had much of a chance from the beginning.
Problem #1: Election Year
First off, getting anything substantial or even slightly controversial accomplished during an election year (which pretty much seems like every year now) has always been a problem.
The reason for this is actually fairly sound: The last thing a politician wants is to offer up their opponents easy fodder for attack ads, and nothing would make easier fodder than either trampling on state’s rights (voting for an online poker ban) or doing nothing while online gambling proliferates across the country (voting against an online poker ban) and being blamed for allowing gambling to invade every home with an internet connection.
Problem #2: It’s a complicated issue
Further complicating problem #1 is the level of vulnerability these politicians put themselves in by taking on an issue as convoluted as online gambling. In this era of hyper-partisanship you need to be fully on board with every part of your party’s agenda or face a primary from someone who is.
With online gambling, one way or another you are going to end up on some constituency’s bad side, whether its states’ rights advocates like Freedom Works or social conservatives like Focus on the Family.
Online gambling is simply one of those issues where only a small percentage of the population is unequivocally for it or against it, while a significant percentage of people are somewhat torn over the issue, allowing for a general malaise as to whether online gambling should be legalized or not, while yet another substantial swathe of the population have virtually no opinion on the subject.
So the best thing to do is put your head in the sand and hope your fellow lawmakers are smart enough to kill this thing in committee.
Problem #3: The Message and the Messenger
If you wanted to pick perhaps the worst person to front an anti-online gambling crusade (or a better person depending on your stance on the issue) you couldn’t have come up with a more perfect choice than Sheldon Adelson.
Here is a casino billionaire fighting to keep America safe from… wait for it… gambling.
If that wasn’t stupefying enough, Adelson and his cohorts are using a bricolage of talking points that run the gamut from money laundering for drug cartels and terrorists to little Jimmy getting a hold of parents credit cards and turning into a problem gambler, but all anyone actually discussing the topic mentions is how it is competition to his casino empire –Adelson doesn’t seem to be fooling anyone with the moral outrage argument.
Problem #4: The Carveouts
Imagine a vegan saying they are against meat in school lunches… except for hot dogs and lamb chops.
That’s essentially what these bills to ban online gambling state, as they have several carveouts including lottery, fantasy sports, and horse racing.
How do you square this inherent contradiction? We are concerned that there will be a blackjack game in every home, but horse racing in every home is perfectly fine.
Problem #5: The genie is already out of the bottle
The biggest problem is we already have three states with legalized online gambling (and several others with legal online lottery) who have spent years and millions of dollars getting these industries off the ground.
Perhaps the best argument against an online gambling ban is this: Online poker in Nevada turned 1 on Wednesday and chasms haven’t opened up leading to the realm of Hades.
Pushback has really kicked into gear
So far there have been several individuals who have signed on to Adelson’s crusade; Governors Rick Perry, Rick Scott, Nikki Haley, and Bobby Jindal, but the vast majority of people and groups weighing in on the topic have been in complete opposition to a ban.
The Fraternal Order of Police, a coalition of 10 Conservative/Libertarian groups, the Democratic Governors Association, North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries, and the National Conference of State Legislatures are among the groups that have criticized the proposed legislation.
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