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Anti-Gambling Bill Forced Through the Senate
02nd 2006f October 2006
Congress has decided that gambling online is a dishonest practice. That has become obvious over the last few years. The irony is that the same people who are declaring online gambling to be immoral used dishonest and some rather sneaky tactics to sneak online gambling restrictions through the Senate in a pre-recess session.
In a late night session on September 29th, Congress attached a bill that would outlaw various methods of uploading money into an online account for the purpose of gambling to a bill that dealt with port security. The bill passed in the House of Representatives by a near unanimous vote of 409-2. After this convincing win in the House, it passed in the Senate as well. Adding more dishonesty to the tactic of attaching an anti-gambling bill to one that deals with our homeland security, the Senate passed this bill on a voice vote. In other words, there is no record of who voted which way.
There are a number of people online who are trying to frame this assault on the internet gaming industry as a conservative attack on something we all love. Republicans sound the trumpet louder because it plays to their base, but Democrats have jumped on the anti-gaming bandwagon in an effort to cater to a voting majority that leans toward conservatives. Now both sides can claim victory over the immoral online gaming industry.
The new law does not make internet gaming illegal, but does outlaw various payment methods. Banks and credit card companies now cannot be used to upload money into the online account of your favorite gambling site. Alternative methods of paying, such as Neteller, are not addressed in the bill. This makes gaming more inconvenient, but far from impossible.
Those who enjoy online gambling need to recognize the direction the wind is blowing and make this issue one of the many they consider when they pull the lever in the November elections.
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