Barney Frank, that conflicted anti-business Congressional crusader (see here and here) who is nevertheless challenging the federal government’s ludicrous prohibition of internet gambling, has decided to introduce legislation to overturn the prohibition, and he thinks it has a chance of passing.
Good for Barney. But how sad is it that Rep. Frank — who is essentially a socialist with regard to economics, business and big government issues — is one of the only national politicians who is willing to advocate reasonable and common sense restraints on the federal government’s prosecutorial power against business interests?
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
I’ve got to believe he’s only supporting this legislation because the World Trade Organization has said (twice now) that our discriminatory ban on Internet gambling is illegal, when our Federal system allows states and Native American tribes to maintain all kinds of carve outs.
So one way to look at this is to say that Barney Frank is caving into the WTO rather than protecting American sovereignty in our legislation of morals. Or Frank just realizes it’s got to happen, and wanted to score some points for it.
But, like you, I don’t see much of a reason for continuing to ban Internet gambling and extraditing people who run such businesses in other parts of the world. So I’ll take it.