Congressman Goodlatte's Online Casino Ban Has Ulterior Motives

It seems the Congressman doesn't think online gambling is dangerous if it helps keep him in office.

While many observers felt the "Sixty Minutes" piece aired Sunday night about online casino cheating scandals did not adequately discuss the point that government regulation would cure the problems revealed, the accompanying set of stories in the Washington Post did.

The article discloses the zealotry employed by the opponents of regulated Internet gambling, as they seek to achieve their goals for reasons hidden below their spiels about morality and protecting the children. Like most casino gambling legal battles, this one is about who controls gambling revenues and which special interests are served. There may be much talk about public safety and money laundering, but more successful measures against these problems are ignored to protect vested interests that profit by the attempted ban.

Robert Goodlatte, a Republican Congressman from Virginia, was pushing for online gambling bans when the UIGEA was just a dream in Bill Frist's cold, black heart. He told the Post he would ban all gambling if he could, and says of online casinos, "These offshore, fly-by-night Internet gambling operators are unlicensed, untaxed, un-regulatable and are sucking billions of dollars out of the United States."

But Goodlatte does not come clean with voters. Yes, he wants to bar Internet gambling, but not all gambling. After all, Goodlatte has voted and pushed for exceptions in the online gaming rule for the horse racing industry repeatedly. Totally by coincidence, of course, horse racing groups have donated over $20,000 to Goodlatte campaign contributions. It seems the Congressman doesn't think online gambling is dangerous if it helps keep him in office.

Prosecution is also selective. The Justice Department says any form of online gambling is illegal, yet foreign operators of sites based outside the US are chased down and forced to forfeit millions and suffer jail terms, while racing sites take bets from computers across the country without a peep from the feds.

When Goodlatte says that online casinos take money from the US without taxes or regulation, that is true. It is equally true the vast majority of legitimate businesses that comprise the online casino industry would gladly accept both strict regulation and fair taxation to remove doubts as to US legality. It is only the shadowy profiteers from the current mess that stall such action.