Is Congress Dangerously Gambling With Gambling?

[Terri]

By Paul M. Weyrich
April 8, 2008

Richard Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough and 17th-century English philosopher, wrote, "Games of chance are traps to catch school boy novices and gaping country squires, who begin with a guinea and end with a mortgage." Now, of course, gambling ensnares far more than young boys and amazed country-folk but the effects remain the same. It is a particularly destructive addiction, falsely leading people to believe that if they just bet on one more game they will turn a profit. In reality, many destroy their finances, their marriages and their lives.

Recognizing the destructive nature of gambling, Congress enacted anti-gambling regulations in late 2006. The regulations were intended to curb online gambling by requiring banks and credit-card companies to block payments by Americans to overseas Internet gambling sites. Two years later the Department of the Treasury still is trying to devise a way to implement the law.

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