STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

17 August 2007

The U.S. religious right and the National Football League join against Frank proposal to regulate online gambling

It would appear that the American National Football League is seriously concerned about legislation to regulate U.S. online gambling proposed by Congressman Barney Frank, which has received growing political support.

The Financial Times claims that the NFL has "...enlisted the support of the Christian right to help drum up opposition” to Congressman Barney Frank’s proposed internet gambling regulation, apparently not content with the existing carve-outs for fantasy football which it already enjoys.

The report reveals that Bill Wichterman, a top lobbyist and advisor to the former Republican majority leader Bill Frist who rammed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act through a late night session of Congress last year, is the point man in a new initiative. His objective is apparently to encourage conservative groups to co-sign a letter sent by Christian pressure group Focus on the Family to US politicians encouraging them to uphold and strengthen the widely unpopular UIGEA.

On a more positive note, the New York Post over the weekend supported the Frank regulatory moves in an article titled "Web Gambling - tax it, don't ban it" written by Representatives Steve Israel, a Democrat, and Peter King, a Long Island Republican.

The op-ed piece observes that the US Treasury department is charged with a number of law enforcement jobs - protecting the president, investigating counterfeit money, tracking terrorist financing and so forth, but remarks that these days, thanks to a "legislative ‘rider’ passed last year", Congress has told Treasury officials to spend their time and resources going after something far more trivial - people who play cards from their home computers.

"Frankly, federal law enforcement officials have bigger fish to fry,” the article comments.

"Years ago, the Treasury’s Secret Service agents used to help President Harry Truman put poker games together in the White House. Now they’d be locking him up!”

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