MASS. ONLINE GAMBLING BAN SLAMMED AT RALLY

21 March 2008

Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson and iMEGA representatives criticise online gambling ban clause in Governor's proposal


The Harvard university group Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, the Poker Players Alliance and the iMEGA Internet freedom pressure group between them marshalled a protest rally this week outside the Massachusetts legislature's offices where a debate on allowing land casinos in Massachusetts as proposed by Governor Deval Patrick was taking place.

But it wasn't the land casinos that motivated the protest. Instead it was a clause tucked away in the proposal that would make online gambling in the state a banned pastime on pain of draconian penalties that was the focus for the rally....and no one was 'fessing up to its drafting.

Harvard Law Professor and founder of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) Charles Nesson criticised the proposed casino bill for making it a crime for individuals to play poker on the Internet when he addressed the crowd in front of the Massachusetts State House. He had earlier submitted written testimony prepared for the Legislature's public hearing.

Nesson said, "Governor Patrick's Casino bill would make it illegal for state residents to play poker online, with penalties ranging from hefty fines to jail time of up to two years. How crazy is that? Who wrote the bill's strange provision to criminalize online games? The Governor's people say it wasn't him (even though it's nominally his bill). The Las Vegas casino interests say it's not them. Both questions should be put to the Governor..."

Nesson has been in contact with the Massachusetts Governor's office about the drafting as well as the chairman of the board of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, which is thought to have a hand in the creation of the bill, trying to get answers on who inserted the provision making it illegal to play online poker.

"I don't think filling our expensive jail cells with poker players is what Massachusetts voters had in mind when they elected Deval Patrick," Nesson said in a press release.

At the hearing Joe Brennan Jr., Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association chairman, expressed his organisation's opposition to the anti- Internet gambling provision in the bill. "It is ironic for a bill to legalize gambling in Massachusetts to outlaw and severely punish gambling online. It simply makes no sense," Brennan said.

"How can an activity that is legal in 48 of the 50 states be a criminal act simply because it utilizes the Internet? If an American has the right to choose in the "real world," shouldn't they enjoy that very same right when they are online?"

"Like many of the government's forays into cyberspace, these efforts are well intended but yield the considerable practical problems of unintended consequences," Brennan said. "In this case, Americans' right to privacy and freedom of expression are imperiled by overzealous lawmaking."

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