Slashdot Mirror
Internet Gambling Law Resurfaces
hayek writes "The on again off again Internet gambling prohibition act is apparently on again [story from CNN]. The bill, which passed the house, apparently stops credit card companies from completing transactions with offshore casinos. Of course, since these debts are apparently unenforceable anyway, its unclear what the point of the law would be, other than to make clear that lowly college students wanting to gamble over the internet will need to find legal alternatives that are well regulated by U.S. authorities and safer."
It's unfortunate. If this bill had been justified as a consumer protetction law to protect people from offshore casinos that don't pay out even though they collect then he may have had a point, but justifying this law with a claim that something doesn't serve a legitimate purpose in our society, he's lost the argument. (Well, IMHO. There are people in congress that matter infinately more than me because they get to vote on this thing, and they may be just as brain dead.)
What else doesn't serve a legitimate purpose in our society? Homeless people? We don't need them, they have no purpose. I guess he thinks we should deport them. Other forms of entertainment (Obviously purposeless, since casinos are entertainment, and they have no purpose)? Music, Movies, Playing cards? Well, I guess we don't need DRM laws or extended copyright, because entertainment is illegitimate, and only entertainment companies are pushing for these things.
Ah, the hypocrisy.
"...make clear that lowly college students wanting to gamble over the internet will need to find legal alternatives that are well regulated by U.S. authorities and safer."
You forgot to add "Taxable" to the list