Frank Points Out Kids' Peril is Credit, Not Online Gambling
Perhaps the most often spouted reason to limit personal freedom, censor the Internet, and deprive adults of their choice in entertainment by banning online gambling is to protect children. But Barney Frank asserts in defense of his efforts to regulate Internet casinos in the US that the financial dangers some assume come from accessible gambling actually comes from accessible credit.
Writing in US News and World Report, Frank says that much of the peril feared at online gaming sites, and throughout the Internet, is caused by uncontrolled credit for adolescents. After all, teenagers without the ability to borrow money can't put themselves into the desperate straits that demagogues say leads to suicide and ruin.
"If we were to ban every activity that is suitable only for adults because of the possibility that some underage people might access these activities, we would have substantially diminished our freedom as adults," says Frank.
"Moreover, Congress is now reforming credit card practices in measures meant to severely restrict credit cards being sent to college students and further reduce the likelihood of credit card debt for people under 18," the Congressman writes, effectively noting that the danger lies in debt and the ability to accumulate it.
Frank explains that, in these cases, the maturity needed to properly gamble may well be the same as the maturity needed to receive and use credit. While online casinos work ferociously at turning back underage players, teenagers are actively recruited by credit suppliers.
"Even if Internet gambling is not allowed, young people with unrestricted access to credit cards will very often find ways to get themselves into a lot of trouble," Frank says.
Of course, there are a lot of banks making a lot of money from out-of-control credit spending, by both adults and teenagers. Surely Spencer Bachus will take on this powerful and rich dragon; after all, it's for the children!
