Good ol’ Ben, except in the person of Poor Richard, was certainly no prude and no Puritan in many matters. His womanizing is legendary, and allegedly he treated his wife rather shabbily. But if he were alive and trying to keep alive the Poor Richard franchise, he would’ve cheered at the recent news out from a last-day-in-session Congress.
To wit: Using the Safe Port Act of 2006 as a shield, Congress slipped in something called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which makes it illegal for banks and credit processors to send money to gaming sites.
You’d think the Feds would’ve learned their lesson with the Volstead Act and Prohibition. All that did was create a flourishing underground economy based on booze and at the same time create the underworld in the person of the Mafia.
Far from this stupid law’s driving Internet gambling out of existence, there’s no doubt that new and more ingenious ways of doing money transactions will appear–and be based off-shore where the U.S. has no jurisdiction and probably involve criminal elements.
If I were to update Poor Richard, I’d intone that “pity be he who thinks he can outlaw vice; rather, vice may rid itself of you and your silly laws, or at least render you impotent and irrelevant.” (Remember when Clinton denied being “irrelevant”? See how useless denials are? Are you listening, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?)
You Might Also Like:
- The Line on the NFL
- Unluck Strikes Again
- First Observation, Continued
- Too Much for Ol’ Ben
- Too Much for Ol’ Ben
Posted in Almanack Musings |
Leave a Comment