UIGEA Not A Minor Issue

Published: Friday, November 03, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

NOT A MINOR ISSUE

Associated Press article gains wide mainstream media coverage

Attracting wide attention and editorial coverage in the mainstream media this week was an Associated Press article by staff writer Adam Goldman that considers the impact on the US Republican Party of the recent Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (see previous Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa reports)

Republican politicians Bill Frist, Jon Kyl, Bob Goodlatte and Jim Leach are widely regarded as chiefly responsible for the Act, which has infuriated online gamblers by the thousands due to its inequities, interference in personal and private right of choice and what is widely seen as an undemocratic process deployed to get the legislation through.

Rubbing salt in the wounds of online gamblers are comments from conservative and Republican supporter organisations like the Heritage Foundation, which this week shrugged off suggestions of player outrage, calling the issue a minor matter to most voters and therefore not a significant threat to Republican political aspirations in the mid-term elections just days away.

"I don't believe a large volume of voters are motivated to go to the polls because of Internet gaming, either way," said Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

However, as the AP article highlights, with Republicans already on the defensive over the Iraq war, budget deficits and the congressional page scandal, the gambling law is the latest issue that could steer voters away from the GOP.

"I've been a loyal Republican for over 30 years, and I'm quitting the party I once loved," said Jim Henry, 55, who lives outside San Francisco. "Not because of the Mark Foley scandal or Middle East policy. But because the Republican Party wants to stop me from what I love to do: play poker over the Internet."

The UIGEA pits social conservatives who disapprove of gambling (and certain other interested parties) against the 8.5 million Americans who spend about $6 billion annually to cast wagers online.

Some opponents of the law see a political component to its passage, believing it was intended to buoy support for Frist among religious conservatives if he decides to run for president in 2008. Leach has also cited moral dimensions to the law, calling it one of the most important pieces of family legislation ever considered by lawmakers.

"Internet gambling is not a subject touched upon in the Old or New Testament or the Quran," Leach said earlier this year. "But the pastoral function is one of dealing with families in difficulty and religious leaders of all denominations and faiths are seeing gambling problems erode family values."

From an online gambler perspective, however it is hard to reconcile these moralistic statements with the carve outs in the act for internet betting in the horse racing and state lotteries businesses, or in the contributions made to political coffers by land gambling companies.

Associated Press says that a Gallup Poll taken earlier this year found that 60 percent of adults believe gambling is morally acceptable. That's true for many religious conservatives who say they enjoy placing a bet.

"I've talked with Republicans all over the country, and they all understand that this is a theft of our liberty," said lifelong Republican Alan Sheldon, 61, of Loveland, Ohio, whose grandmother taught him how to play poker at the age of 4.

Sheldon, who describes himself as a conservative Christian, said he would not vote Republican next week because of the new gambling law.

"I suspect that people who actually do a lot of Internet gambling ... they're going to be turned off by this," said David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington. "That's going to hurt Republicans."

Boaz said the law would likely alienate self-described libertarian voters, which he estimates constitute about 13 percent of the electorate. Boaz published an analysis last month suggesting libertarians have been slowly shifting their support to Democrats since 2004.

Others say it's too much of a niche issue to swing the election.

"National security, the economy and such issues are likely to be the most pressing issues in voters' minds next Tuesday," said Carrie Meadows, a spokeswoman for Goodlatte.

The Poker Players Alliance, an advocacy group in Washington with more than 120 000 members, said it has been flooded with angry e-mails from libertarian organisations and Republicans disavowing the law. And the group is letting its members know how their representatives voted.

Alliance President Michael Bolcerek hopes they vote Tuesday and "share their outrage with Congress."