Protectionism And Online Casino Gambling - The Best Online Casino Guide Blog
Protectionism: A Definition -
” The government’s placing of duties or quotas on imports to protect domestic industries from global competition.”
This is the original dictionary definition of Protectionism. However, like all ugly and unwanted impositions on our freedoms, it has come to take on newer and more sinister meaning. It can mean the attempt by a government or a corporation to block or stop the growth and progress of new competition. This is the definition that most concerns us as Online Gamblers. The constant attempt by interested parties to block, stop and make illegal online gambling in the United States in order to protect the interests of Land based Casinos, Race Tracks and State run lotteries.
A state or a corporation obviously has every right to be concerned about competition since they are operating with the intention of a balanced, fully funded budget in the case of the states or as a profitable business in the case of any corporation. However, there is nothing legitimate in the desire achieve profitability or maintain a balanced budget, that allows either entity to interfere with the legal growth of a new industry that may compete with their established interests. Yet as American online gamblers have seen over and over again, this is exactly what has happened and is continuing to happen across the length and width of the United States. Both Governments and Corporations have constantly used every means at their disposal, both legal and quasi-legal, to do everything in their power to stop the growth of online gambling dead in its tracks. Sadly, despite the fact that the vast majority of voting, legal aged Americans are in favor of legal online gambling, they are continuing to be successful in their efforts and online gambling is now illegal in the United States.
In this time of severe economic uncertainty and facing trillion dollar deficits, the various entities who are opposed to legal online gambling show no concern for the fact that by making online gambling illegal, we are losing 30,000 to 50,000 American jobs as well as an estimated 15 Billion Dollars a year in additional tax revenues. These figures have been established by many detailed surveys; some done by the government agencies themselves. What is even worse is that making online gambling illegal in the United States has not stopped Americans from gambling on the Internet and over 100 billion dollars a year are being drained from our economy, un-taxed and into the hands of foreign banks and foreign owned businesses. So much for the effectiveness of Protectionism. All the myriad efforts at stopping online gambling have accomplished nothing but enriching our competitors in foreign lands.
Worse than the open heavy handed legal antics both on the State and Federal level, are the under handed and quasi-legal methods being employed by Land Based Casinos, Race Tracks and other legal non-Internet based gambling operations. They have spared no expense in their efforts to demonize online gambling. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund lobbyists to swamp elected officials with their unscientific, biased screeds on online gambling. They have tried to present online gambling as the corrupter of our youth and the bane of every American family and spared no expense to spread this false information.
Then we come to the sad and scary fact that these same Race Tracks and Land Based Casinos are among the largest donors to U.S. Senators and Congress Persons. Millions of dollars have been donated to the campaign funds of elected officials who have come out against online gambling on the local, state and Federal level. It boggles the mind that the very same businesses that take in billions of dollars a year from Americans who visit Land Based Casinos and Race Tracks around the United States on a regular basis, have come to the conclusion that Internet gambling is different and evil and therefore should be illegal. It boggles the mind that a Senator can oppose online gambling by claiming it corrupts and endangers people while taking campaign donations from Land based Casinos and Race Tracks. The level of moral dishonesty is simply stunning. It has become a sad reality that more and more of our elected officials serve no purpose other than doing everything in their power to stay in office. They will accept funds from anyone who aids them in this goal and have no interest in representing the wishes of the voters who elected them in the first place.
It is obvious to any clear thinking person that there is only one possible reason that anyone could say that Land Based Gambling is legitimate and safe while online gambling is evil and corrupting. The only possible reasons any Land Based Casino, Race Track or State Funded Lottery can have for making this claim is to PROTECT their own profits while preventing another, competing industry from growing. Sadly, by stifling their competition they are helping their own demise. People crave variety and online gambling is a vital and new product that entices and arouses the interest of gamblers everywhere. Instead of blocking the growth of online gambling with all of these nefarious, protectionist methods, the very same corporations that own the Land Based Casinos and Race Tracks, should themselves be investing into the future of online gambling. Instead of passing laws to block legal online gambling, the cities, state and Federal Governments should be benefiting from the increased tax revenues legal online gambling will bring them.
We have seen the under handed tactics. We see the constant donations by land based gambling to politicians and lobbyists. We see the clumsy attempts like the one made in Massachusetts to add to a bill allowing for the building of new Land Based Casinos and Race Tracks a clause making it a crime for any citizen of Massachusetts to gamble online. We see the Billions of dollars drained from the U.S. economy. We see the thousands of lost jobs in America and the billions of lost tax revenues due to the fact that online gambling is illegal. We see all this and more and frankly, the vast majority of Americans are sick and tired of business as usual in America.
Voices are calling out from every corner of the United States for change and if our elected officials don’t listen to our voices and take notice, they will soon find themselves out of a job. Already we have seen the incumbent Senator from the very conservative state of Utah, dumped by the Republican state convention for not being representitive of the voters who elected him. We are talking about a sitting, incumbent Senator who will not be chosen by his own party to run for his own seat in the U.S Senate. This is no minor detail but the first wave of a veritable tsunami waiting to roll over those elected officials who do not listen to the voices of the people who voted them into office.
Do not make the mistake of thinking online Gambling is a minor issue compared to the other issues in the news today in the United States. We are not just talking about placing bets or having a great time on the Internet at our convenience. We are talking about the loss of 30,000 to 50,000 American jobs. We are talking about the loss of 15 Billion Dollars a year in tax revenues. We are talking about over 100 Billion dollars a year leaving the U.S. economy untaxed and into the hands of foreign owned businesses and banks. This is no minor issue. This is an issue of economic growth and an issue of personal freedom as well.
So my friends, the next time you look at your pay stubs and see all the many deductions taken out, remember that is the same money you will be using when you gamble online. It is your money that you earned and have already paid taxes on. Remember also that you are an adult who supports themselves and perhaps a family and under our own Constitution, we are entitled to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. When a government acts to PROTECT special interests such as Land Based Casinos and Race Tracks while making online gambling illegal, that government is no longer acting with respect for our Constitution or in our best interests. When the government acts against the will of the majority, the government acts against the Constitution of the United States.
Fortunately we have in our possession one great equalizer and that is our right to VOTE. So my friends, if you desire the resumption of your rights to gamble your own, previously taxed dollars, online and legally, it is time for you to exercise your voice and your vote. Do this by communicating to all your relevant elected officials your strong support for the legalization of online gambling. Do this by voting for candidates who are in support of legal online gambling. Make a difference and make your voice and your vote count.
It is time for American citizens to stop being represented by Presidents who are elected in National elections where barely 50%, or even less, of the eligible voters actually vote. It is time for all of us to get off of our lazy butts and get out there and make our votes count. It is no longer acceptable that 90% of American citizens do not know the names of their state’s two U.S. Senators or the name of their representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. We must participate in the process if we wish to retain the freedoms promised to all American citizens in our Constitution. To do otherwise is to accept Protectionism and Tyranny.
