Congress Again Targets Internet Gambling-But Not Pork Spending
"Internet gambling has taken the betting world by storm, but efforts are underway on Capitol Hill to put an end to online gaming," reports FoxNews.com.
"Lawmakers are crafting various measures that would make it illegal to use credit cards or electronic funds transfers to pay for gaming activities, and are hoping that banning revenue exchanges will cut the bloodlines to the Net gaming industry."
In "Should Washington Ban Internet Gambling?", Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Cato's director of technology policy, writes, "Your after-tax income belongs to you. You're free to spend it, invest it, waste it, burn it, or tithe it, and none of that is the business of politicians.
"Government shouldn't turn vices into crimes-even granting the notion that gambling is a vice, which is open to question. Perhaps pork barrel spending is a more serious vice, one to which Congress should direct its attention. Are gambling losses significant compared to pork barrel and other extravagant spending, to which citizens are forced to contribute?
"Once we travel down the road of regulating behavior on the Internet, there's basically no limit to government's ability to regulate voluntary speech and interaction and to substitute its moral vision for those of individuals. Washington should mind the federal budget casino instead."
Wyatt Dubois, editor,
"Internet gambling has taken the betting world by storm, but efforts are underway on Capitol Hill to put an end to online gaming," reports FoxNews.com.
"Lawmakers are crafting various measures that would make it illegal to use credit cards or electronic funds transfers to pay for gaming activities, and are hoping that banning revenue exchanges will cut the bloodlines to the Net gaming industry."
In "Should Washington Ban Internet Gambling?", Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Cato's director of technology policy, writes, "Your after-tax income belongs to you. You're free to spend it, invest it, waste it, burn it, or tithe it, and none of that is the business of politicians.
"Government shouldn't turn vices into crimes-even granting the notion that gambling is a vice, which is open to question. Perhaps pork barrel spending is a more serious vice, one to which Congress should direct its attention. Are gambling losses significant compared to pork barrel and other extravagant spending, to which citizens are forced to contribute?
"Once we travel down the road of regulating behavior on the Internet, there's basically no limit to government's ability to regulate voluntary speech and interaction and to substitute its moral vision for those of individuals. Washington should mind the federal budget casino instead."
Wyatt Dubois, editor,
