It’s a Sure Bet; Washington Elects Hypocrites
Joe Duffy (www.godspicks.com)

For most of my existence I have been a conservative Republican. I have
always favored “conservative” tag over the party affiliation, but when I do
my civic duty, the chad that I hang, impregnate, dimple or preferably
puncture is that with an (R) next to it.

I have faith in individual responsibility and I accept as true that the
government should promote commerce, not outlaw it. I postulate that we need
to increase income tax revenue while reducing the tariffs on earners.

It stands to reason that I believe the United States government needs to
awaken and make all forms of gambling lawful. I would reason that my
right-of-center elected officials would concur.

Yet to my consternation in the bipartisan duplicity to further destroy
Internet gambling, it may be even my own party that has shown their
two-facedness moreover. However, intellectual fraudulence if far from
restricted to members of that ideology. The party that preaches “choice”,
and ridicules government invasion on moral issues has more than their share
who want to save us from what the minority schism circumscribes as the evils
of gambling.

"Gambling erodes values of hard work, sacrifice, and personality,” John Kyl,
Senator from Arizona and the lead Big Brother claims. We are not sure if he
is just windbagging about those who win money going against his NFL
Cardinals (which really is not gambling) or if his sanctimoniousness
highfalutin at least covers gambling on the stock market, church bingo and
state lottery.

Leo Shafto, of MVP Sportsbook is generally considered to be one of the top
linesmakers in the world correctly states, “Why do many states that oppose
sports gambling, allow for the lottery? The average hold of a sportsbook is
4.5 % of the handle and the sportsbook is never guaranteed to win. The
player has an actual legitimate chance to win. The lottery sells a pipe
dream to millions and state is guaranteed revenue many times taking over
50% of the handle off the top. The governments can spin it any way they
want but they aren't morally opposed to gambling, they're just exceptionally
greedy and get pissed off when they can't get their paws on a piece of the
action."

The biggest arguments against you being approved to invest your hard earned
money in the privacy of your own house is that Internet gambling encourages
teens to gamble, increases addiction and credit card fraud.

Ah yes, the latter is certainly a loaded gun for two-facedness. I will take
Senator Kyl to any bankruptcy court during business hours anywhere in the
country and show him people who are habituated to credit cards without any
help from Internet gambling. But because some cannot supervise themselves,
I beg Senator Kyl to criminalize all credit cards so he can disembarrass
and liberate us all from ourselves. We know that “S” on his chest is not
just for “Senator”.

If we banned everything based on whether or not it can become addictive, say
cheerio to caffeine, alcohol (didn’t they already try that?), pain killers,
Faith Hill videos, sushi, Rubik’s Cubes, cigarettes, and an endless list of
vices. Godspeed also to credit cards, church bingos, Pac Man, day stock
trading, and state run lotteries.

At initial glance we thought that a southern legislator was going to make
commonsensical arguments with underlying principle. “The very nature of
gambling, with its great potential for fraud and corruption, demand that it
be regulated as it now is in all jurisdictions," Rep. Spencer Bachus R-Ala.,
was quoted on Foxnews.com as saying.

We agree it needs to be well-regulated, but than he takes a turn for the
Pharisee train, "Cyber gambling is the crack cocaine of gambling and will
create a new generation of addicts unless we stop it."

Grandstanding 101 aside, what kind of flimflam poppycock is he trying to
hustle? He compares speculating on the outcome of a sporting contest to
narcotics? Who elected this showboating cock-a-doodle-doo?

Mournfully now mercenary legislators are exploiting the heinous tragedies of
911 to aggrandize their pre-911 agenda by implying totally groundless
connections to organized terrorists. This McCarthyism is exploitation in
its most detestable manifestation.

Of course, the irony is that the harder that our lawmakers push this
legitimate recreational activity to the back alley, the more enticing of a
fundraiser it becomes for the underworld. A doubtless communiqué from
militant terrorists to Kyl: keep up the good work.

But let us for mere folly briefly indulge ourselves to that baseless
denunciation of recreational interest vesting. Despite its factual vacancy,
I will briefly acquiesce to the reckless conjecture. It would be yet another
case of the government going after the symptom and not the problem. If we
find that a terrorist sold Girl Scout cookies to raise money, should we
outlaw just the cookies or the entire organization?

Investing in speculation for recreation or profit is a virtuous activity
enjoyed predominantly by responsible adults. We do not make laws based
purely on the capricious exceptions. Otherwise nobody would have a driver’s
license, computer, or an endless list of conduits for irresponsible
transgression. Of course some would petition for this anyway, but say
sayonara to the Second Amendment while you are at it. Furthermore, the
Fifth Amendment paradoxically is both our most indispensable Human Right and
abused responsibility. Homogeneous with the line of non-thinking that says
use the wayward son’s misgivings to justify prohibition to the greater
number, Kyl needs to put the final nails in Free Speech coffin too. If we
are too irresponsible to spend our own jack, surely it must be assumed we
speak with forked tongue.

In an era in which government needs to increase tax revenue without further
manipulating tax encumbrance, they have clearly gone astray by dismissing
this lawful and honorable billion dollar industry.

To think, making sports betting no more taboo than pari-mutuel racing, state
lottery, stock market gambling, and church bingo could brings millions a
dollars a year into the state and federal coffers.

They could pork more barrels—not to mention interns with the newfound
revenues from a bountiful commercial enterprise.

But I guess sports gambling can be a bipartisan gizmo for pecksniffery and
gamesmanship; apparatus for hypocrites of all political persuasions.

Of course what does logic have to do with elected officials? The ability to
bet on Monday Night Football is a menace to nobody (sans bookmakers of
Godspicks clients). But those who wish to use the full force of the law to
tell me what I can and can’t do with my long green are the most ominous
endangerments to civil liberties. Only the ballot box can stop them.

When the time comes to cast a ballot, eliminating the moral Gestapo need be
your and my top priority. Yes, even if it means crossing party lines to
protect your and my birthright to spend our money as we deem and not the way
the elected kingpin appropriates.

I will do my civic duty. You can bet on it.

Joe Duffy is General Manager of Freescoreboard.com, the premier handicapping
hub and also of 866-FREE-866, the top source for real-time toll-free
recorded scores, odds, injuries, weather, news and notes, free picks and
more. Duffy’s plays are part of the Dream Team at Godspicks.com.










Mike Godsey
President
Godspicks.com

_________________________________________________________________
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail