Shelley Berkley of Las Vegas Calls Move a 'Ridiculous Abuse of Power' When a federal act to protect the nation’s ports came in front of Congress at the end of last month, only two members voted against it. The Act was deemed an absolute necessity in the fight against terrorism, and as Congresswoman Shelley Berkley said, how does a politician in an election year vote against port safety?They don’t, not even Berkley, a Las Vegas Democrat who called the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) “an invasion of our privacy and it takes away our citizens’ rights.”“What could be a greater invasion of privacy than government telling you cannot play Internet poker in your own house?” she said. “This was a breathtaking abuse of exercise of war power.”Berkley’s Congressional district includes just about all of Las Vegas, and she has ties to the casino industry as a former vice president of government and legal affairs for the Sands Hotel. She’s one of a handful of politicians who spoke out against Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s attempt at getting the UIGEA attached to a major defense spending bill. He initially failed, but succeed later in the week at the last minute in the session before Congress broke for a long election-year recess.This is what Berkley had to say about Frist’s first attempt in a fiery speech in front of a half-empty Congressional chambers: “A ban on Internet gaming in the Defense bill? How ridiculous is that? At a time when we have brave American men and women fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Republican leadership is more worried about Americans playing poker online than protecting our troops in the field.”Although the UIGEA is considered a partisan bill, there’s no denying the rocket fuel that blasted the issue in front of Congress came from Republican conservatives and traditional, conservative organizations. Berkley isn’t shy about pointing this out, and she’s all fire and brimstone when talking about it.“The ban on Internet gaming was part of the Republican family values agenda. They passed it to pound their chests and talk about how they’re protecting America’s youth,” Berkley said. “You got a bunch of ideologues running Congress. They’re not interested in anything that has a modicum of common sense; they’re only interested in a very narrow moral position.”In 2003, Berkley and four other Congress members introduced legislation to explore ways to tax and regulate online gambling. Obviously, the bill stalled and didn’t get any further than discussions and press releases.Berkley has a loud voice and is obviously passionate about this issue even though the casinos located in her district sat back and watched as the political maneuvers to dent online gambling went on throughout the year. The American Gaming Association has come out and said it supports a study on Internet taxation and regulation, but it remained almost silent as the bill made it through the House of Representatives and then into Congress. Before this year, the AGA has stated it supports efforts to stop illegal gambling. This goes against Berkley’s way of thinking and she says there’s no reason why the United States should not tax and regulate this industry, even though supporters of the UIGE Act say it’s impossible to do.Representatives from the federal government testified at the House Judiciary hearings that the US doesn’t have the technology to tax and regulate online gambling, something Berkley believes isn’t true.“I believe we now have the software available to make sure than that we can figure out who’s 21 and above. We can regulate it, we can monitor it. There’s no reason at all to ban it,” she says.The UK is about to prove her right. In 2007, America’s strongest ally will allow online gambling companies to move there and offer their services to the world. They’ll join more than 80 countries that tax and regulate online gambling, including Australia, Denmark, France, and Germany. Berkley says it’s not too late for online poker fans to let politicians know how displeased they are at their actions, and maybe change the course of the country.“You make sure your member of Congress knows that you are opposed to the ban on Internet gambling,” she said. “Believe me when I tell you, we count the number of calls we get.”As for online poker, Berkley feels the same way thousands of other online poker players feel in that, despite what the elected leadership decides, the game will go on.“Internet gaming is going to exist whether the United States Congress says it can or not,” she said. </PRE>
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