As noted earlier here, here and here, the federal govenment’s crackdown on Internet gambling is a wasteful exercise in nanny-state futility. However, it also is damaging to foreign investment in American markets, which is also something that we should not take lightly.
Well, the modern-day Prohibition-protectors are at it again. Earlier this week, the founders of Internet payment-services company Neteller PLC — a publicly-traded London Stock Exchange company that merely facilitates payments to many online gambing sites — were arrested and charged with conspiracy in connection with the transfer of billions of dollars of Internet gambling proceeds. The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office charged Stephen Eric Lawrence and John David Lefebvre, with conspiracy to transfer funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling, charges which carry a possible sentence of 20 years in prison. Lawrence was arrested in the Virgin Islands and Lefebvre was hauled off to jail in Malibu.
What level of waste regarding the destruction of lives, careers and wealth will it take before Congress and the Justice Department learn that enforcement of paternalistic laws criminalizing something that is not even a particularly serious problem is bad public policy? Along those lines, the Washington Post’s Andrew Beyer reports on how the prohibition-style legislation has already had a detrimental impact on American gambling consumers and an innovative company.