A gambit for gambling

No doubt those of you who live in-state have heard this, from the Courier-Journal:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear announced yesterday that he is trying to shut down illegal Internet gambling in Kentucky, though some industry experts say his chances of success aren’t good.

Beshear said at a news conference that illegal and unregulated gambling Web sites — many of which operate from other countries — are “leeches on our communities” and unfairly undermine Kentucky’s horse-racing industry.

In what he called a potentially groundbreaking case, Beshear said he filed a civil suit last week in Franklin Circuit Court against 141 Internet domain names, such as pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com.

The governor said Kentucky law allows the state to seize devices used in illegal gambling — in this case, the domain names.

According to Beshear, the suit asks the court to force the sites to block access by Kentucky users or relinquish control of their domain names.

…

But David Stewart, a Washington, D.C., attorney who is an expert in gambling law, doubted that Beshear’s strategy will work.

“This is — forgive me for being blunt — a stunt,” Stewart said.

…

Asked whether it is morally dubious to condemn one form of gambling while condoning others, Beshear said he is going after online gambling because it is not regulated by the state or federal government.

He said the sites could be preying on youths, not paying gamblers their winnings and even funneling money to terrorist organizations.

“This is a threat to national security,” he said.

Beshear ran for election on the promise to bring casino gambling to Kentucky, especially to Kentucky’s faltering race tracks.

From the News and Tribune:

Among the 141 domain names transferred to the state are sportsbook.com, pokertime.com. and casinobar.com. Brown said they are distinguished from such sites as twinspires.com, operated by Churchill Downs, by their virtual existence and the fact that twinspires.com offers wagering on actual, regulated events �that are really taking place and are regulated.�

I don’t have much faith that casino gambling is going to save the State of Kentucky or horse-racing. Like the lottery, I think it will amount to a tax on the poor for the benefit of the rich.

Nor do I have any sympathy for online gambling enterprises.

But I do think it sets a bad precedent for the state to seize domain names, especially when there is such an obvious conflict of interest.

And anyway, like the man says, the gambling establishments will just establish new domain names.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

__________
While I’m reading the newspaper for you, some things going on at the NYTimes today that might be worth a look:

As Homes Are Lost, Fears That Votes Will Be, Too

More than a million people have lost their homes through foreclosure in the last two years, and many of them are still registered to vote at the address of the home they lost. Now election officials and voting rights groups are struggling to prevent thousands of them from losing their vote when they go to the polls in November.

Many of these voters will be disqualified at the polls because, in the tumult of their foreclosure, they neglected to tell their election board of their new address. Some could be forced to vote with a provisional ballot or challenged by partisan poll watchers, a particular concern among Democrats who fear that poor voters will be singled out. That could add confusion and stretch out lines that are already expected to be long because of unprecedented turnout.

Bush Aides Linked to Talks on Interrogations

WASHINGTON � Senior White House officials played a central role in deliberations in the spring of 2002 about whether the Central Intelligence Agency could legally use harsh interrogation techniques while questioning an operative of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah, according to newly released documents.

In meetings during that period, the officials debated specific interrogation methods that the C.I.A. had proposed to use on Qaeda operatives held at secret C.I.A. prisons overseas, the documents show. The meetings were led by Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, and attended by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top administration officials.

Rice’s excuse is pretty lame here:

Some of the techniques proposed by the C.I.A. � including waterboarding, which induces a feeling of drowning � came from a program used by the Pentagon to train American pilots to withstand the rigors of captivity.

�I recall being told that U.S. military personnel were subjected in training to certain physical and psychological interrogation techniques and that these techniques had been deemed not to cause significant physical or psychological harm,� Ms. Rice, now secretary of state, wrote in response to one question.

Still, Ms. Rice wrote that she asked Mr. Ashcroft personally to review the program and �advise N.S.C. principals whether the program was lawful.�

If I recall correctly, U.S. military personnel were trained in how to withstand these interrogation techniques, which would seem to me to be a strong indication that the techniques have significant risks.

Added: And, via Anglachel, James K. Galbraith in the Washington Post:

Now that all five big investment banks — Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — have disappeared or morphed into regular banks, a question arises.

Is this bailout still necessary?

The point of the bailout is to buy assets that are illiquid but not worthless. But regular banks hold assets like that all the time. They’re called “loans.”

Read it all. It will show you that there is a way out that doesn’t include giving the executive branch unprecedented new powers.

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Matthew Haughton

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