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How many of you know the Federal Reserve is a private bank from Britain?
U.S. Officials Race to Finalize UIGEA Regs
I am not well versed in the legal and political aspects of all of this, but the problem, or one of the problems I think we might face in all of this, and I am only saying what has been in the papers and the news stations. It seems that there is some kind of rif between Polosi (the speaker) and Obama.
From what I understand, if he wants to govern in the middle or left middle, I heard there will be certain groups that will try and get him to go to the far left, which is where Polisi is. I got an email from her several months ago and man, she is not at all for making online gaming legal.
As far as what we can do, do you have any suggestions. I have written to Polosi and Fienstein, both oppose it, I have written and spoke with my reps office, Brad Sherman, he voted in our favor the last time there was a vote on it, that’s why I knocked on doors for him.
Nathan, what else can we do besides write, phone and email out reps, anything?
I responded to your other post; that’s where I gave some more specific input on what further actions you can take.
You know, it’s really hard to tell right now how Obama’s going to govern. He’s basically slightly left of center (despite the Republicans screaming that he’s the most liberal senator ever, which is laughably inaccurate). I personally feel he’ll be less reactionary against such things as online gambling.
I believe that there are two reasons why UIGEA exists, and why online gambling is vilified in the U.S.:
1. Politicians like to come off as “family-friendly”, because it helps their poll numbers. Any action they can take that is interpreted as “moral”, they’ll do in a heartbeat, because it’s a great soundbite for their re-election ads. Never mind the fact that there’s nothing inherently immoral about gambling; it’s become so ingrained for most Americans to associate gaming with immorality that politicians think they can reap instant benefits from speaking out against it.
2. Powerful interests such as professional sports and horce racing want online gambling illegalized so it doesn’t infringe on their own profits, since it would be direct competition.
I don’t think that Obama is susceptible to either of these points. I don’t know his position on UIGEA, but he definitely doesn’t have the same knee-jerk motivation to be against it as Nancy Pelosi does, for example.
I imagine Pelosi thinks she is protecting economically challenged people by wanting online gaming outlawed.
What she doesn’t realize is these people are going to gamble online whether it’s legal or not, and they’re going to gamble offline too.
So they’re almost always going to have issues finding money to pay for necessities like their own healthcare, etc…
The solution to this problem?
Regulate online gambling and tax it. The tax revenues can help pay for healthcare for economically challenged individuals, some of who may lose money gambling. At least they’ll get healthcare out of it.
A practical solution for a real problem… Which is what I think Obama is all about… The question is, what is Pelosi all about?
