All In, With Few "Outs"

"Rule #1" of Heimlich blogging is out the window today. This post is unabashedly political. (I may have to downgrade the rule to a guideline, at this rate.) But I know many of my readers will take interest in this one.

This afternoon, the House of Representatives passed a bill to, in essence, ban online gambling. It passed by an overwhelming margin. (Here, incidentally, is how that vote broke down.)

Of course, just taxing it like any other "sin" wasn't an option for the majority of our elected officials. And of course, exemptions had to be carved out so that states could still separate their citizens from their money through the lottery.

If you live in a state with legalized gambling, this law is saying it's okay for you to gamble, so long as you don't do it in the privacy of your own home.

Perhaps most aggravating of all was the exemption also made for horse racing. Gotta let the states where that's big slide through. So essentially, this law is telling you that certain types of gambling are okay, while others are not. Somehow you can "lose your house with the click of a mouse" (to paraphrase the words of one congressman) playing online poker, but not betting on horses online? Idiocy. (Though only slightly more idiotic that the horse racing lobbyists who actually think that online poker players, restricted from their game, would actually turn to horse racing as an alternative.)

Only one obstacle remains before the U.S. Government forces you to fold your poker hands for good -- the Senate. The bad news: there's no reason to expect the bill would not pass there as easily as it did in the House. The good news: this issue has not been debated or prepped for voting in the Senate. There are only four weeks left before our "hard-working" senators take a one-month break until Labor Day, and then only another four weeks after that before they're out of session until the 2006 elections. Procedure dictates that if the bill is not passed before the end of the session in which the House approved it, the House vote is invalidated.

So bottom line: if you're against this law, you have to hope that the government does its typical job of not getting its shit together, and is unable to bring it to a vote in the eight working weeks remaining. Because if it doesn't come to vote, you have the chance to elect new congressmen for 2007 that won't try this crap again.

If it does come to vote? Well, then you'd better write to your senator if this is something you care about, and hope that they actually give a shit. (Unlikely as that may be.)

Otherwise, you're looking for this century's version of a speakeasy.