MILLIONS OF Americans have engaged in criminal behavior leading up to
today’s Super Bowl. You know who you are – those of you outside Nevada who
placed bets on the Indianapolis Colts or Chicago Bears. It’s estimated that
about $5 billion will be on the line this afternoon in a nation in which
even office pools are technically illegal in some states. President Bush in
October signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, a law
intended to resolve any ambiguities about the unlawfulness of placing bets
online. Although most fans in the free world can place bets with regulated
online casinos, U.S. law enforcement has been busy cracking down on the
heinous crime, going after enabling credit card companies, detaining those
who run legal foreign online sites if they deign to enter the country and
subpoenaing major Wall Street investment banks involved in overseas initial
public offerings of online casinos. It’s another brazen attempt to extent
prudish American mores to other jurisdictions. One bemused Las Vegas sports
handicapper told the Wall Street Journal last week that the ban on Internet
gambling should be renamed the “Sopranos Support Bill,” because the main
beneficiaries of keeping closely regulated casinos from doing business
online are bookies. Instead of protecting consumers and raising tax revenue
from this popular entertainment, the government is protecting the turf of
unsavory bookies, many of whom have ties to organized crime. The gambling
crackdown is part of a broader trend of a paternalist state protecting
citizens from themselves, curtailing their freedoms in the process. We live
in a nation still engaged in a war on terror and in a city struggling with
escalating gang violence, yet precious law enforcement resources are being
spent on prosecuting morality. But, for today, enjoy the game while
pretending you don’t know the spread. After all, that could prove
incriminating.