The New York Times had an article on 4 July by Kate Phillips entitled "Interest Groups Lining Up to Lobby on Web Gambling."

Readers of this blog know that I am in favor of Internet gambling for the main reason that I do not think it can be stopped and since it cannot be stopped Americans should not be impeded from competing in what the rest of the world considers to be a legal business.

The article cites numerous religious groups, particularly Christian fundamentalists, that are lining up with members of Congress to impede Americans from using credit cards and other forms of credit to bet online.

Representative Jim Leach (Republican of Iowa) seems to be taking the lead in the thrust against online gambling. If you read the article and substitutte the word alcohol for gambling you wonder why Leach is not trying to reinstall prohibition in America. I would contend that alcohol abuse is much worse for Americans than gambling. In fact in the same edition of The Times there was an article showing that alcohol consumption by teenagers was a sure way to cause brain damage. While gambling might cause problems, it does not cause brain damage.

Like most politicians, Leach should be spending his time on matters such as bringing sanity to the American tax system or our health system or perhaps being realistic about taxing gasonline appropriately rather than running around railing against Internet gambling. No matter what legislation is created, Internet gambling is now part of world commerce.

Leach and Senators such as Jon Kyl (Republican of Arizona) are absolutely ignorant about how the Internet is used. They are tilting at windmills - just as the government in China is fighting a losing battle in keeping criticism of China "off of the Net" in China. Nobody can stop the march of the Internet.