Online gambling finally hits the mainstream

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

A couple of months ago, I posted a column discussing the fact that the mainstream media was ignoring the topic of online gambling, and steps the industry could take to encourage more positive media coverage.

Well, what a difference eight weeks can make - and all it took was the help of a gay Congressman in Barney Frank, a libertarian Republican presidential candidate in Ron Paul, and the American Bankers Association (ABA).

Talk about strange bedfellows. I hope you will forgive me if I didn't see that coming.

Regardless, the last few weeks have seen coverage (of the UIGEA hearings) of the industry coming from such major mainstream sources as the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and countless other publications. In fact, one of the most notable aspects of the coverages was that the issue seemed to strike a chord with both left and right leaning publications. In that respect, this might be the first issue to have bipartisan support since the Patriot Act.

And yesterday saw more coverage of the topic from TheHill.com, a generally well-regarded site that targets Washington insiders. I encourage you to browse the article. In that story, journalist Jessica Holzer puts together a realistic and well-balanced piece about the new bill, H.R. 5767, which was introduced last week by Frank and Paul.

Far from a one-sided perspective, in the story Ms. Holzer seeks out opinions from the ABA, the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, the Independent Community Bankers of America, as well as the Family Research Council, the NFL, and the office of Senator Jon Kyl.

The highlight is a quote from Tom McClusky, the VP for government affairs at the Family Research Council, who says, "It’s another attempt to take apart a bill that was passed overwhelmingly by the House."

Yeah, right.

What McClusky doesn't say is that the bill that was passed overwhelmingly was the Safe Ports Act, and the UIGEA was hidden inside that Act in a manner that could only be described as legislative spyware. Ooooooh, I should patent that term.

Anyway, other than that omission, the article is a great read and gives a nice overview of all of the viewpoints surrounding H.R. 5767. Anybody who reads the article with an open mind would have to come to the conclusion that, at the very least, the UIGEA is a a severely flawed piece of legislation and H.R. 5767 does well to minimize its impact before it could cost the struggling American economy literally billions of dollars.

April 15th, 2008
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