'Bald Protectionism' And Hypocrisy In America

Internet Poker / Editor / 13 November 2007 / Leave a Comment

OVER there, in America, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is looking at online poker. He has considered the game from all angles and thinks it would be best if anyone caught playing online were jailed for two-years and fined $25,000 fine.

The idea is mooted in a bill whose larger purpose is to allow for three new casinos in Massachusetts.

Patrick's fellow Democrat, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who is sponsoring federal legislation to license and regulate online gambling nationally, asks: "Why is gambling in a casino OK and gambling on the Internet is not?"

There is an easy answer. And David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, tells the Boston Globe: "If you were cynical about it, you'd think that they're trying to set up a monopoly for the casinos."

Reason magazine's Radley Balko writes of Patrick: "I've seen the same politician push bricks-and-mortar casinos in one bill while restricting online gambling in another."

Is the position confused? Balko says states like Texas, Illinois, and Virginia have cracked down on private gambling and poker games while spending millions promoting lottery scratch-offs with card-playing and poker themes. The writer senses evidence of Patrick's "bald protectionism".

Anti-competition laws... In America? Never!

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