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Your Government Knows What's Best For You, Right?
By Nolan Dalla
(All Rights Reserved)

They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

-- Benjamin Franklin

The two dumbest questions in the English language get asked over a million times daily. You get asked these questions at every airport check-in counter in America. "Has your luggage been in your possession at all times and has anyone given you anything to carry with you?" Is there a more pointless exercise than this? Does anyone really believe real terrorists when questioned by perky ticket agents, are going to throw up their hands in frustration, admit guilt, and surrender their weapons? In the entire history that these idiotic questions have been asked to air passengers -- which includes hundreds of millions of inquiries -- has anyone ever answered "yes?"

This masquerade does nothing to improve air safety. It's merely the first in a series of drawn-out obstacles that has turned airports into gauntlets, with barricades set-up every step of the way. Flying has become a national nightmare, about as appealing as a visit to the dentist's office -- with annoying questions, prodding by magnetic wands, and body searches. We're spending billions of dollars and wasting millions of man hours searching elderly grandmothers and inspecting packed underwear. Never mind that none of the security measures now in place mandated by federal law would have prevented the terrible terrorist attacks of September 11th. But what's really baffling is that most people seem perfectly willing to sacrifice their personal freedoms and civil liberties, even though in reality, we are no safer or secure today than before.

Of course, we all want our government to protect us -- from criminals and foreign invaders. However, far too often the government oversteps its basic responsibilities by a mile. It seeks to protect us not just from outsiders, but "from ourselves" as well. Backed by a dangerous constituency of moral crusaders, namely the religious right, our government has instituted laws and legal restrictions against drinking, recreational drug use, smoking, and even some forms of sex.

Now, in the name of national security, the government is actively targeting gambling. Anti-gambling zealots now fill the halls of Congress like fruit flies swirling around a rotten apple. They are entrenched in governors' mansions from coast to coast. They dominate nearly every state legislature in America (the great State of Nevada, being the notable exception). Contrary to public opinion showing that the overwhelmingly majority of people support most forms of gambling in many areas, elected officials at virtually every level of government, from lowly city council member up to the President, pride themselves in being opposed to gambling. Right now, under your nose and behind your back these forces are going after gambling with a vengeance under the guise of "protecting" citizens.

Consider their objectives: (1) They seek to outlaw gambling over the Internet. (2) They want to make betting on college sports a federal crime. (3) They want to stop legitimate money transfers from American financial institutions to offshore gambling sites because they purportedly "finance terrorism." (4) They are determined to stop the growth of casinos to other states. (5) In some communities, they are even targeting legal cardrooms (San Jose comes to mind). No other business sector in this country (other than tobacco companies) have been the target of so much hostility by its own government as the casino industry. Demonized every step of the way by opponents, these two industries may soon have one more thing in common. Government authorities now say they will go after casinos in court in an all-out offensive to cripple casinos though class-action lawsuits. For instance, take a closer look at the following three examples of what's on the horizon ahead for gambling and poker:

NEWS ALERT #1

Tort lawyers have another target in their sights after an extremely successful campaign against the tobacco industry -- casinos. Public health advocates and their litigators say compulsive gambling is a crisis that has reached epidemic proportions and something must be done to stop casinos from injuring the many addicts who look to them to feed their roughly $50 billion a year habit. "It's very similar to the drive to snort coke or smoke crack. It's that pressing, that urgent," said Henry Lesieur, a gambling treatment therapist.

"There's a huge cost to communities, there's a huge cost to individuals, particularly to families of compulsive gamblers," said Scott Harshbarger, president of Common Cause, a citizens group that promotes government accountability.

Harshbarger is also the former attorney general of Massachusetts who launched the tobacco industry lawsuits. In the biggest class-action settlement in history, tobacco companies agreed to pay 48 states $246 billion in damages.

Now, Harshbarger is ready to tackle gambling, which he calls the next public health crisis. He said casinos could hold a huge potential payout to help recovery efforts for addicts.

"If you're going to lure people to come, and families to come, you need to deal with the reality that this introduces potential addiction problems," he said.

But personal responsibility advocates say gamblers know they're engaging in high-risk behavior. And critics say suing the casinos is less about collecting damages for compulsive gamblers and more about lawyers looking for their own jackpot.

"Increasingly we have an entrepreneurial plaintiff bar that comes up with the idea of what industry they want to sue and then goes looking for a client," said Walter K. Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Olson says lawyers have embarked on a strategy in which they first rile up the public about an issue then "go out and look for an industry that you can demonize."

Policy experts say tobacco and gambling are just the beginning of a wave of litigation against big industry. They predict alcohol and fast food are next, then anything with the potential to spin a compulsion into gold.

NEWS ALERT #2

Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed a bill that would have allowed bigger winnings for gamblers playing cards at dog tracks, saying the expansion of gambling is "bad public policy."

The bill started out as a way to help find homes for greyhounds after their racing careers, requiring adoption information be placed in programs. But provisions were added to help dog tracks, which say they are being squeezed by other types of gambling and struggling to stay open.

It would have increased the hours card rooms could operate at Florida dog tracks and increased the amount that could be bet, which presumably would draw more gamblers to the tracks.

Greyhound racing opponents had urged the veto, saying it would do more to help an industry they consider cruel than it would to help the dogs. Florida has a third of all North America's greyhound tracks. Bush said in his veto message that the bill (CS SB 160) "began as a well-intentioned effort to help find homes for rescued and retired racing greyhounds and provide them with better treatment.

"The bill, though, is now a vehicle for the expansion of gambling, increasing the days in which card rooms may operate," Bush said. "It has long been the position of my administration that the expansion of gambling is bad public policy."

NEW ALERT #3

Citibank, the nation's largest credit card company, is beginning a new system to block customers from using their plastic to make online wagers, New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer said. The attorney general said the actions by Citibank, which has 12% of the nation's credit card consumers, should compel other major issuers to follow suit. He said his office would be approaching the other firms to join Citibank.

"Today is a critical step forward,'' Spitzer said. He said the move by Citibank "says to the rest of the industry we think this is the right thing to do.'' The deal represents both a financial and technical step forward on the part of prosecutors and others trying to enforce laws against internet wagering. Spitzer said going after online wagering companies is difficult because they are often located off-shore. And prosecutors like Spitzer have been reluctant, so far, to go after gamblers themselves.

Fortunately, not all our elected officials want to destroy our freedom. Give credit to Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank as one of the few brave souls in Congress willing to stand up against the onslaught of anti-gambling legislation now pending in various committees. When Rep. Frank was questioned recently whether the government should regulate something adults did voluntarily, he spoke for the great silent majority of Americans who approve of gambling. "If American citizens or legal residents want to gamble, let them. Why do you care?" Frank replied matter-of-factly.

Some people in our industry may believe that poker and politics do not mix. I say they are wrong. Very wrong. It is essential that we stand up and demand, and if necessary fight for our freedom to make our own decisions in life. I think most gamblers want minimal government influence in their daily lives and want people to take responsibility for their own actions. That's the American way. Trouble is, few of us are willing to fight for our basic rights. Few poker players have ever written a Letter to the Editor of their local newspaper, giving our side of the story about important issues. Few poker players have attended town hall meetings where casinos and cardrooms have been openly discussed and debated. It's not enough that these zealots who want to take away your rights simply be defeated. They must be rebuked and their ideas must be ostracized. If these moral guardians chose not to gamble, that's just fine. But just don't expect me and 60 million poker playing Americans to conform to your narrow views of right versus wrong.

I often ask myself -- when will people in this country get fed-up with this nonsense? The answer is -- they will finally get fed-up when our personal freedoms have slowly but surely been destroyed and the government is making all our decisions for us about how we live our lives. Sadly, by then, it will be too late to do anything about it.

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