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Internet Gambling Ban Hypocritical, Says Columnist

August 21, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Last week’s proposal by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians to approach the regulation of Internet poker in that state in an new way may seem destined for failure. However, there's one thing it has successfully accomplished: It's brought the issue of the online gambling ban to the forefront of California’s political debate, if only temporarily

In an editorial published in San Diego’s North County Times — a news publication at the center of the debate, with its proximity to many of the key players in (and opponents of) the proposal — the United States’ ban on online gambling is called “hypocritical” and “ludicrous”.

“The 2006 federal law was moderately effective because it prohibited banks and other financial institutions from transferring money to and from gambling sites,” the editorial states. “But as with Prohibition some 90 years earlier, those who would ignore the law can find a virtual speakeasy without great difficulty.

“All it really serves to do is point up the hypocrisy of our political leaders, who decry gambling while promoting state-sponsored lotteries and permitting real-world casinos —- taxpaying ones — in more than half the states.”

Regarding the Morongo tribes’ effort to legalize online gambling in California, the editorial states the following about the federal gambling ban’s exception that allows Internet only gambling if it’s within a state’s borders: “It's ludicrous to think such an earthbound rule can be enforced when dealing with the amorphous Internet, but such is the absurdity of the 3-year-old federal prohibition.”

Click here to read the entire column at the North County Times website.