Barney Frank Going To Try To Repeal Internet Gambling Ban

9:24 pm EST March 6th, 2009 | News | 9 Comments

diceGood call.

A senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday he would push to pass legislation to repeal a three-year-old U.S. ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with European Union.

‘I’m going to be pushing it,’ House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank told reporters at a press conference to lay out his agenda for reforming U.S. financial regulation.

Work on drafting the legislation should be completed this month, a House aide said.

Every time I’ve had a chance, I’ve voted pro-gambling – in Florida for casinos, and in Maryland with slots. Gambling ought to be a normal, regulated business. The people who are going to get addicted to gambling and do stupid things already are.

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9 Responses to “Barney Frank Going To Try To Repeal Internet Gambling Ban”

  1. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    March 6, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    It doesn’t work, and all it does is move jobs to the Caribbean.

  2. Clancy says:
    March 7, 2009 at 12:29 am

    I’m probably the exact opposite of Oliver on this one. Legalized gambling is never the panacea that proponents make it out to be. As a result, I generally vote against it when given the opportunity.

    Like many vices, it’s true that you can’t eliminate it, but that hardly means that it should be ubiquitous. It’s one of those things that someone should have to do a little legwork on before taking part. At the same time, it’s rather silly that it isn’t better regulated so that we can tax the hell out of it.

  3. Walt says:
    March 7, 2009 at 9:31 am

    I agree with you, Oliver, but stuff like this ensures that I’ll always give my charitable contributions to the casinos the old fashioned way:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26563848/

  4. Kevin says:
    March 7, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    Clancy is spot on w/ his comments regarding legalized gambling as a false panacea. And Oliver, you’re not old enough to remember, but Maryland’s Eastern shore and souther counties were devastated by slots and other legalized gambling… it took almost 25 years to clean up the social mess and get crime back under control.

  5. Oliver Willis says:
    March 7, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    Again I say, make it well-regulated. The mob ran the casinos in Vegas, then the business got regulated and the corporations moved in.

  6. Crusty Dem says:
    March 7, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    Legalized gambling is just a regressive financial redistribution, as has been demonstrated in every locale where small scale legalization has been permitted. If the government ran the casinos and gathered 100% of the income, I might be amenable to it, but I certainly don’t approve of it for the Trumps and Maloofs.

  7. Parthenon says:
    March 7, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    I dunno. If people want to gamble, who am I to stop them? Tax the pants off it, provide counseling, but let them play.

  8. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    March 8, 2009 at 1:04 am

    “If the government ran the casinos and gathered 100% of the income, I might be amenable to it…”

    This would be fine by me.

  9. I'm a Hick says:
    March 9, 2009 at 9:04 am

    “The people who are going to get addicted to gambling and do stupid things already are.”

    So we have all the addicted gamblers we’re ever going to have? I know what you mean. Someone with an addiction (to gambling or something else) is going to find away to engage in it. But I don’t like to see it become easier for them.

    I don’t gamble. I know many do without problem, and it’s a potential revenue source. But at least here in Texas, dog racing, horse racing, and the lottery haven’t been the bonanza they were supposed to be. And we’re about (I think) to see a a huge push to legalize casino gambling as a means to revitalize Galveston.