Internet Gambling Figures Cited by Chad Hills Unsubstantiated

In a recent USA Today poll, over ninety-five percent of respondents said they thought regulated Internet gambling was preferable over laws forbidding playing at online casinos.

Chad Hills, the uncredentialed self-proclaimed gaming expert from James Dobson's Focus on the Family, recently asserted that, despite huge public outcry for legalized and regulated online gambling, "You can't make public policy out of a group of individuals' desires."

Actually, Mr. Hills, when that group of individuals is made up of the vast majority of citizens, that's exactly what you should do. In a recent USA Today poll, over ninety-five percent of respondents said they thought regulated Internet gambling was preferable over laws forbidding playing at online casinos.

Hills goes on to say, "You have to say, `How is this impacting our culture? How is this impacting our children?'''Well, obviously Mr. Hills' background includes inadequate schooling. Impact is a noun, not a verb, and hopefully our children will be educated to not speak as poorly as Hills.

Further, if Hills wishes to ask those questions, perhaps he should consult objective studies with empirical evidence rather than invent his own convenient answers. In the area of problem gambling, studies from around the world have found evidence that compulsive gambling is a symptom of a physical difference in the prefrontal cortex in the brain, and does not exist as a Satanic result from the availability of online gaming.

Social ills generally assumed to increase with the advent of land casinos have been found to remain unaltered in percentage to the overall population, and perhaps even decrease in the immediate vicinity of casinos due to higher levels of security.

By Hills' own figures, adolescent gambling on the Internet is overwhelmingly popular, despite every law and ban he and his uneducated friends push through Congress. However, surveys reveal that European and other countries have had great success using regulation and advanced software to curb underage gambling.

Hills has compared the Internet to a modern version of the public library, and says gambling should play no part because of the threat to children. However, all respectable libraries carry materials not suitable to adolescents; they simply screen those who wish to view questionable information.

For instance, Playboy can be found at libraries everywhere, but it is kept behind counters, and must be requested. Wouldn't this be called regulation in the modern Internet library?

Of course, there are many books far more harmful to the psyche than Playboy on the regular shelves for display. These books have inspired mass murder, torture, revolution, and terrorism. They include "Mein Kampf", "The Communist Manifesto", the Bible, and the Koran. Although censorship and government control of individual freedom are against the founding principles of the United States, perhaps Hills and Dobson should start their campaign to "protect" the country by calling for the removal of these books from adolescent eyes.