Will: Gambling not a sin, government "looks silly"

21 August, 2009

One supposes that the recent spate of newspaper opinion columns on re-legalization of online gambling in the United States is positive – after all, at least the issue becoming mainstream makes more likely the possibility that federal lawmakers won’t fear alienating constituencies with mere mention of the subject – despite mostly superstitious sentiments.
One positive for the pro-gambling crowd came with the much-respected conservative columnist George Will’s super-sober piece on Howard Lederer, the Poker Players Alliance, and a federal government that “looks silly.” Though Will devotes much of the article to the now-familiar argument of poker players, i.e. “poker ain’t gambling, it’s a game of skill,” the conservative does take the libertarian tack in stating that:

Having turned gambling, which once was treated as a sin, into a social policy, government looks silly criminalizing online forms of it. Granted, some people gamble excessively (although not nearly as many people as eat excessively). But never mind whether government should try to circumscribe a ubiquitous human activity that generally harms nobody […] That is beside the point.

All in all, Will’s voice of authority that works so well in convincing many an American political moderate to consider the alternate viewpoint may be a service here. After all, how can one debate the überrational dude who’s backing his point by referencing the foundation of modern game theory first written up 80 years ago?

From the “He Said/She Said” reporting world is USA Today’s op-ed debate format. Today the technicolor publication takes on Silver Bets Casino’s favorite political issue, with obviously-biased New Jersey state senator imploring readers to “Give public what it wants,” because “legal sports betting benefits good causes instead of organized crime.” Just-as-biased USA Today opined that legalized online gambling is a “bad hand” and produces charts aplenty to “prove” its position.

Enjoy and please drop a line to either publication, thanking them for the positive coverage.