Focus on the Family Reacts to Barney Frank Internet Gambling Bills

[Robbien]

Dr. James Dobson founded Focus on the Family in 1977, an organization that works to strengthen family bonds. Recently, the organization has come out against Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) Internet Gambling Regulation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, HR 2267. The bill outlines a comprehensive framework to license and regulate the internet gambling industry in the United States. Poker News Daily sat down with Focus on the Family’s gambling spokesperson Chad Hills to discuss the new measure.

Poker News Daily: Explain the general response of Focus on the Family to Barney Frank’s comprehensive internet gambling legislation.

Hills: We see gambling as something that causes addiction and it’s an industry that seeks to exploit the weaknesses of people in order to gain money. What we see from our perspective is an estimated 15 million people who are either problem or pathological gamblers in the U.S.; that’s no small number to ignore. What concerns us is that addiction is followed by bankruptcy. When someone goes bankrupt and they hit the bottom of the barrel, they get desperate. They have nothing else to lose and so turn criminal to keep feeding the addiction or to pay off their debts.

From our perspective, internet gambling represents one of the most invasive and highly addictive forms of gambling. You have availability 24/7 and most gamblers online play on three to five sites at a time. Add those things together and then put that in the privacy and secrecy of your home; you have a perfect storm for gambling addiction. If you walk into a casino, people know the addicts and kick them out. There is public accountability. Online, it’s the click of a mouse.

PND: Does Focus on the Family subscribe to the notion that regulation of an industry ultimately means better protection against underage and problem users?

Hills: We’ve been doing a lot of research on countries conducting legal internet gambling and can pull up three to eight different headlines almost every day where one of them is being hit up for corruption or being investigated. I haven’t seen a system yet that is childproof. I haven’t seen a system that can stop white collar crime from going on.

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/focus-on-the-family-reacts-to-barney-frank-internet-gambling-bills-2454/


For the first time ever, I agree with Dobson. Barney Frank and his big pocket online gambling lobbyists are trying to make online gambling legal again.

[skipos]

1. Good lord, a war on gambling is going to work as well as the war on drugs.

You for banning liquor too? Regulate it and tax it.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. This is a matter that should be addressed by only one man.

Bill Bennett is that man.

[chaplainM]

3. Ralph Reed? Jack Abramoff?

Dobson must've really been upset about those two, right? Right?

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. I'm not sure i get this -

Is internet gambling illegal or not?

If it is legal under current law, what does Frank's bill change?

If it is illegal, but happening anyway, it is a completely unregulated gambling industry and open to massive abuse and fraud.

If the unlawful internet gambling act reduced online gambling sites by 50%, does that mean the other 50% are OK? Do these guys really think the problem gamblers don't already know how to access these remaining (unregulated) sites? Doesn't Frank's bill simply acknowledge that the illegal gambling sites - controlled by underworld organizations - exist, and propose to put them out of business by regulating them?

Seems like a simple choice - unregulated criminal activity preying on the public, or regulated legal activity that can provide safeguards to protect the problem gambler and the underage player.

[Politicalboi]

5. This sounds like religion to me

Hills: We see gambling as something that causes addiction and it’s an industry that seeks to exploit the weaknesses of people in order to gain money.