U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher

I recently decided to write to Rick Boucher, a Democrat from Virginia. He was pissing me off with his mindless Bill to further restrict internet gambling.

Why is this concept so difficult to grasp for these people? Millions of Americans love to gamble. It is part of their heritage. Millions of Americans visit Las Vegas, buy lottery tickets, play in their weekly poker game and so on. Millions of Americans like to play poker, bet sports or gamble on the internet and for some reason the decision is being made that the proper response to this is to restrict the rights of Americans and take away more of their freedom.

Right now in the state of Tennessee where I live, I can go out and buy a lottery ticket and have the chance to win an astounding $365,000,000! I can also go and buy a lottery ticket with a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas and a buy in at the $10,000 main event of the World Series of Poker. Why are they doing this? Because people like to gamble and people love poker.

Yet this Boucher guy thinks that instead of bringing online gaming companies to America, regulating them, taxing them and monitoring what they do, the answer is to outlaw them. To push the problem underground where it can never be properly regulated and taxed. How is this smart?

Right now a bunch of terrorists could open an online casino in Antigua, use it to launder money and then shut it down stealing all the players money. We have no control over it. In fact the World Trade Organization recently told America that trying to block use of such off shore gambling sites is illegal.

So we have a simple choice, try and use prohibition, or regulate, tax and monitor. Is common sense so hard to find these days?

If Rick Boucher ever writes me back I will post his response on this blog. But in the meantime if you believe that prohibition is wrong and that taking away the rights and protection of Americans is stupid why not write to Rick Boucher? Tell him that we would rather wager our money in safe American based, American regulated companies. Tell him that we would rather these companies pay American taxes to help reduce the horrible deficit that George Bush has created. Tell him that freedom is a good thing. Tell him to cut off his comb-over. Tell him to do something useful instead of trying to jail people that play poker online.

"You can not stop the spread of an idea by passing a law against it." - Harry S. Truman