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New tax on the poor: Internet gambling by states
 A campaign by powerful gaming interests to legalize online gambling in America has won a crucial victory from the B.O. regime. On Friday, the Justice Department issued a legal opinion that allows states to authorize Web-based, nonsports gambling within their borders.For one, big doubts remain over whether states can indeed restrain such digital games of chance to residents while also keeping children from playing them. State lotteries, for examples, have a poor record of preventing retailers from selling tickets to minors. And even if states can outsmart tech-savvy teens or out-of-state gamblers, once enough states jump into Internet gambling they will likely be able to work together and create a national scheme for such activity. That would violate the spirit if not the letter of a 2006 federal law banning such interstate activity. Most of all, bringing Internet gambling to America would hurt the poor, who are most affected when people lose money in government-approved games of chance such as state lotteries or casinos -- not to mention the way it would reinforce a belief that one's future depends on "luck" instead of individual merit. Posted by: Fred 2011-12-30 |
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