Jim McTague devotes his latest “D.C. Current” column in Barron’s to the debate over a proposed federal ban of Internet gambling.
Hypocrisy, unlike this city’s delicate Cherry Blossoms, knows no seasons. And it was in full, glorious bloom last week at the House Judiciary Committee, which, on one hand, condemned the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to regulate the Internet in the name of net neutrality and, on the other, promoted a bill in subcommittee that would empower the federal government to ban Internet gambling in all 50 states, including New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada, where residents enjoy the luxury of losing money betting from the comfort of their homes.
This is a high-stakes game over an Internet gambling pot worth about $12 billon, according to Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. That compares with about $35 billion in revenues from marble and mortar casinos.
Casino companies with starkly different views of the Internet are on both sides of the measure. Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands and, reportedly, the Republican Party’s single biggest contributor, favors stuffing the Internet gambling genie back in the bottle, lest technology do to him what it did to bookstores. But, MGM Resorts International, another gaming giant, opposes the bill. MGM Resorts sees profit online, as does the American Gaming Association, whose ranks include tribal casinos, race tracks with casino operations, and technology companies. Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts also serves as chairman of the AGA. MGM has an online gambling license in Nevada. But MGM’s Website currently only offers free games where players rack up reward points redeemable at casinos in Mississippi and Las Vegas.
You have to admire the audacity of congressional double speakers like judiciary’s chairman, Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican. One minute he was blasting the FCC for destroying an Internet that has been “dynamic, competitive, open, and free” by planning to regulate it as a telephone utility. The next minute, he was sitting at a hearing of the subcommittee on crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations to back the anti-Internet-gambling measure, announcing his support for banning Internet gambling because it facilitates money laundering, breaks up families, and even causes suicides. Gee willikers, Goodlatte sounds like he’s waging a war against sin and not, as some critics contend, aiding and abetting deep-pocketed constituents.
