The Death of Neteller

As expected for several months now NETeller is officially dead in the United States. A legitimate legal company operating lawfully in the British Isles since 1999, traded on the London Stock Exchange, handling billions of dollars in transactions every year. But the new freedom defined by the Bush administration does not include the freedom for Americans to spend their money as they please.

America recently arrested the two Canadian founders of the company, who now face 20 years in jail if convicted of handling illegal gambling funds. In response to this NETeller immediately halted all American gambling transactions and banned Americans from opening new accounts. The move effectively kills off 65% of their business. They also asked for trading of their shares to be suspended.

I simply cannot believe just how easily Americans hand over their freedoms. For a country that markets itself on being so free, it is amazing how quickly and how easily these freedoms are taken away. And no one seems to care.

The government didn't even research this particular situation. As I've previously discussed, Bill Frist simply slipped a bill into an unrelated anti-terror bill and in the blink of an eye closes the door in the face of millions of Americans, and billions of dollars in tax revenue. Then suddenly America starts arresting foreign entrepreneurs who dared to start legal and legitimate gambling companies abroad.

The saddest thing of all is that this will achieve nothing positive whatsoever. New companies like NETeller will spring up (and have already sprung up) in countries that couldn't care less what Americans think. Americans who wish to continue their hobby of playing poker, sports betting, or otherwise gambling on line will simply set up accounts with new companies and use them. In other words this move does nothing but push everything underground, exactly like prohibition.

The wonderful learned politicians who support this kind of shit believe that gambling transactions support terrorism (doesn't everything these days?) and so use this as an excuse. So instead of regulation, taxation, and monitoring what is going on, they instead decide that the appropriate course of action is to drive it underground where they will have no clue what is going on. Brilliant!

I sincerely hope that the Democrats will have the balls to kill off this legislation (there is still time to water it down). I also hope they will field an impressive candidate who can kick these Republican Nazis out of office. It's about time we cared less about 'spreading freedom' around the world, and cared more about keeping freedom here at home.