Yet Another Voice Supports Legalization

August 18, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The legalization of online casinos in the United States has received support from many unexpected areas. It seems obvious that almost all Democrats would support online gambling legalization and regulation. However, more and more support is coming out of the Republican arena, often from unexpected sources.

This past weekend, a famous conservative thinker and columnist came out in support of online casino legislation. George Will, in his syndicated Washington Post column joined the many other supporters for legalized online gambling by showing his support for the legalization of online casinos and online poker. George Will is a well-known Republican, who was considered to be the voice of Reagan Republicans.

In his column, Will commented on the absurdity of the current laws governing online casino gambling, and then continued to explain reasons why he feels that online casinos and other online gambling should be made legal in the United States.

Will is known as one of the Republican thinkers who is a particularly precise thinker, and one who thinks things through before expressing his opinion, after which he will clearly express what he has concluded in a logical manner. Because of this, now that George Will has come out in support of online casino legislation, it is likely that more supporters from the Republican side of the scale will show their support too.

It is also likely that further distance will be created between the opinions of the thinking and libertarian Republicans, such as George Will and others in the Republican camp, such as the religious radicals, who are in favor of forcing their personal opinions and choices on all others.

Will pointed out that when Congress passed the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act), they managed to find favor with many church groups, and also to protect the government's own income received from lotteries. It was not that all online gambling was banned, but that the only online gambling that would be allowed, was going to be a choice that would continue to fill the federal government's coffers with income.

Will explains that once the government accepts any type of gambling at all, that they have lost their moral high ground. Will explained that "Having turned gambling, which once was treated as a sin, into a social policy, government looks unusually silly criminalizing online forms of it." He also noted that "gambling is productive of pleasure for tens of millions of Americans for whom it is a frequent pastime."

Will also noted that he felt that online poker had an even stronger case to be legalized, seeing as it is a game of skill, and should therefore not be grouped together with those games that are purely games of chance.