By Samantha Williams
With expending so much energy on demonizing online gambling, isn’t the United States government barking up the wrong tree? There are certainly other issues that the government is better off dealing with, issues that are more worth its time and need to be dealt with in the first place. Three issues actually come to mind: the current real estate bubble, the credit problem, and the recent decision of the World Trade Organization to legalize piracy of US software and media in Antigua and Barbados.
The issue of the real estate bubble is scary enough. For no reason other than simple greed, bigwigs from Wall Street were able to lure people into buying homes they could not possibly afford by using low-interest loans – at least for the first few years of the loan repayment. Naturally, the promise of being able to buy homes they could only dream of got people in bad credit standings to go for their dream homes that were simply beyond their means. And then the honeymoon with the mortgage ends. The dream home becomes a nightmare to pay off every month.
Isn’t that sheer cruelty borne out of greed on the part of the Wall Street bigwigs? And what are the noble folks on Capitol Hill doing to deal with this issue? Nothing much – they are too busy trying to demonize online gambling.
Probably related to the issue of the real estate bubble is the credit problem. Consumer debt is at an all-time high in the last few years, and many Americans are struggling to pay off their credit card debts. Debt settlement agencies are doing good business trying to negotiate ways out of creditor harassment for a good number of Americans.
Has the government already done something to intervene in this matter of crushing debt? Not really, as it is too busy demonizing online gaming.
And now, here comes another problem in the form of that WTO ruling regarding the legalization of piracy of American software and media in Antigua and Barbados. That can only mean one thing: the loss of millions of profit for American corporations. This is another drain on the already flagging US economy and another brick on the yoke of the American people.
It is time to face reality. Online gaming is not the enemy here – outmoded perceptions are. Whatever moral grounds the government may have to object to online gambling, it is not something that it should impose by deeming online gambling illegal. It is a basic right for a person to be able to decide what he or she wants for him/herself, and the choice to whether gamble online or not should be left to the individual. The best thing that the government should do is to implement measures that will regulate online gambling, much what European countries like the United Kingdom is doing.
The fight against online gambling is a losing battle, and the US government is losing millions, if not billions of revenue in the battle. Some of the revenue lost comes from sources not related to online gambling at all. The US government is barking at the wrong tree. There are other, more pressing issues it should spend time on.
