85% in USA against a Congressional ban on Online Gambling

Normally a democracy is about the desires of the people, but you wouldn?t know it by looking at current United States legislation. Rep. Goodlatte, among others, is seeking to put the final hammer down on Internet Gambling. While these United States politicians claim to be doing the work of the people, a recent Wall Street Journal poll shows otherwise. According to the Wall Street Journal Poll, 85% of those polled were against a Congressional ban on Internet Gambling..

The bill, H.R. 4777, has made it out of the House of Representatives committee and is working its way towards the floor for full chamber debate. H.R. 4777 was introduced to the House of Representatives on February 16th of this year and it has legs?130 co-sponsors, which is roughly 30% of the House.

It is interesting to note that the Unites States allows gambling, legally, in Nevada and all throughout the country via Indian Casinos. The strong desire to ban Internet gambling seems less about morals and more about control.

Perhaps if the United States government were able to regulate and tax online gambling, the majority of politicians would come down on the other side. The consensus against banning Internet gambling has no doubt been helped by the explosion of poker in recent years.

Millions of Americans play online poker and more login for the first time each daily. Politicians care about one thing?votes. The boom of online poker has potentially shifted millions of voters against the current proposed bill.

The passage of this bill is far from certain. While it may make it out of the House of Representatives, it still must journey the same long path in the Senate. The meat of H.R. 4777 will improve the language contained in the US Code to include the Internet and all future inventions by using the words "communication facility" rather than describing mechanisms concretely.

Should this bill become law, it could have further repercussions in the cyberspace environment. For example, some politicians could use the passage as an example to present their own ways to control the actions of citizens on the Internet.