Online Gambling Logic Continues to Evade Chad Hills

Hills refuses to acknowledge the uncontrolled access of online casinos readily available to children right now, which could only be curtailed by regulation.

More and more Congressmen have been convinced to get behind Barney Frank's bill, HR 6870, which would set aside the UIGEA and begin a framework to regulate Internet gambling, except as concerning sports wagering. The bill passed the Financial Services Committee vote 30-19, a marked difference from the 32-32 defeat suffered by HR 6767, which was virtually the same proposition.

The change in voting indicates that many Representatives who felt pressured by special interest lobbies like Focus on the Family to cast a ballot against the measure could no longer in good conscience reject a bill that would benefit practically everyone. Rather than vote the opposite way, which would enrage the radical fringe element of the Republican Party and reveal their malleability at the hands of Dobson's zealots, they simply stayed away, letting abstention speak loudly.

But trust Chad Hills, "gambling analyst" for Focus on the Family, to use ridiculous assumptions and unfounded assertions to support his scare tactics against the new bill. On citizenslink.com, a Focus website, Hills says the UIGEA "...gives financial institutions a government go-ahead to block payments to off-shore Internet gambling interests."

This is far from the truth; instead of granting permission (giving the go-ahead) to financial institutions, it made refusing any suspect transaction a legal obligation, backed by heavy fines. Requiring banks and credit companies to determine the nature of what may be legal or illegal Internet wagering, and chancing refusing potentially legal transactions, are major reasons every group of financial and business associates in the United States voiced disapproval of the UIGEA.

Hills then attacks Frank, portraying the man who has emerged as a major defender of individual freedom as someone who is "... passing laws that enable predatory adults to access our homes and children for 'legalized' exploitation..." Hills refuses to acknowledge the uncontrolled access of online casinos readily available to children right now, which could only be curtailed by regulation.

Further, Hills seems to believe that anything potentially accessible on the Internet will influence children by the thousands, yet Focus on the Family is online and still the number of religiously brainwashed zombies devoid of logic or reasoning doesn't appear to be growing. Must be some good parental intervention going on, preventing Focus from poisoning minds.

Hills does have one thing absolutely right: all voters must contact their Congressman and Senators, and advise them of their thoughts. If normal, centered voters allow crazed demagogues like Hills and Dobson to dominate the Congressional conversation, Congress may mistake Dobson's tiny, squeaky-wheel minority for the majority.