Posted on 01/19/2009 5:22:57 AM PST by markomalley
To say that the online gaming community is happy about the outcome of November's presidential election results would be the understatement of the year. On Tuesday, the US, the world, and the online casino industry, all put their hopes and dreams for the future in President Barack Obama's hands.
There are many pressing issues for Obama to begin tackle. first and foremost is the economy, and that is what has the online community thrilled. In order to help fix that economy, the new president may need to turn to online gambling for money.
It has already been documented by representatives such as Barney Frank that there is the potential for tremendous revenue to be generated by government through online gambling. The UIGEA will be one of the main targets of Representative Frank.
He already has a Bill that is in the process of being approved that would overturn the UIGEA. President Obama could be a major mediator in the online gambling debate, and that bodes well for the industry.
Obama has already established that he wants to keep the Internet free. Part of that would be to stop laws that are intended to take away the freedom of businesses on the Internet.
This weekend, there has been a buzz in Washington that has been missing for years. It is the buzz of hope, but more importantly, it is the buzz of people around the US feeling like they once again have a voice.
The people's voice, through use of their wallets, is that they want Internet gambling. Millions of people in the US gamble online, and millions of more would do so if they openly had the option. That is where Obama comes in.
His administration will be responsible for fixing all of the wrongs of the past eight years, and the UIGEA is one of those wrongs. US citizens did not ask for the law, and many are hoping that they will not need to follow it for much longer.
This will be an early test of Obama’s sincerity.
This is one area where I agree with the other side. The laws passed in relation to online gaming by the GOP in 2006 were stupid and frankly not the business of our central government...and probably was one of the unmentioned issues that soured a portion of the population on the GOP before that midterm election. Online poker is very popular and that was at the peak of poker’s popularity.
Thanks for posting the article.
There is no 'mob' anymore - Organized Government has taken its place. They now get the 'skim.'
I’d be welling to bet that the vast majority of voters didn’t even know that Congress had passed a law outlawing online gambling.
The government does not want to eliminate online gambling.
They merely want ‘control’ of it ($$$$$$)
The mob merely moved into organized government. See list of recent obama appointees.
Or was it the other way 'round?
I agree with you. It’s a strange feeling when I find myself agreeing with Barney Frank......but then it was the last minute finagling Bush pulled to implement these prohibitions evidently to benefit the NFL that got me to this point. Like so much other screwball Federal morality legislation it’s left up to the States or private business to bear the cost of implementing this stuff that’s bankrupting this economy. I don’t expect Obama is going to be much different but hey what’s 4 years?
Republicans blew this big time when the anti-online casino bill was passed and signed. It ticked off a large number of people who played online and wanted to be left alone to decide for themselves.
True they will make alot of construction sites very happy in Chicago,New York,Los Angeles.
I’m sorry to say that the force behind the no-online-betting bill was organized crime that was against online betting because they were making money from conventional betting.
Remember the whole Abramoff mess? That was what it was about. He was helping the Indian and other casinos and was thus against the online betting.
That is how a creep like Reid from Nevada got to be head of the Senate. Watch for Obama’s online betting bill to fail in the Senate.
The Republican party (the slightly less socialist wing of the Government Party) can hardly complain about the Christmas tree method of legislation when they do it themselves.
The GOP was wrong to go after online casinos. They did it because of their own moral nanny-statism, with a healthy nudge in the form of financial contributions from brick and mortar casinos.
And its not like the noble Obama administration is stepping up to allow free men to decide their own fate. They just view online gambling as another teat for the government to suckle.
The mob only looks moral when it's dealing with the government.
I personally know over 100 libertarian minded poker players that vowed to never vote Republican after this. And I phrase that as small "L" libertarian (i.e. Leave me alone libertarians).
They are but two sides of the same coin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.