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EdwardNewton-FirstPaper 4 - 22 Mar 2008 - Main.EbenMoglen
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< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | >
> | | | | Is gambling a crime?
-- By EdwardNewton - 14 Feb 2008 | |
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< | My PartyPoker? account
Considering the numerous controversial federal actions that have occurred during the Bush II administration, none has affected my daily activity (at least with regard to my free time) more than the passage of the SAFE Port Act. Although the title suggests a codification of security programs intended to improve security at U.S. ports, it also included an unrelated provision that criminalizes the transfer of funds from financial institutions to internet gambling sites. Since the majority of the bill relates to national security, it passed through both houses of Congress unopposed even though no one on the Senate-House Conference Committee had read the final language. President Bush signed it into law two weeks later. Within days, PartyPoker? .com had closed all of its U.S. accounts, restricting my poker play to a friendly Friday night tournament. Even beyond this personal inconvenience, I fail to comprehend the theoretical or legal rationales that criminalize certain forms of gambling. | >
> | My PartyPoker account
Considering the numerous controversial federal actions that have occurred during the Bush II administration, none has affected my daily activity (at least with regard to my free time) more than the passage of the SAFE Port Act. Although the title suggests a codification of security programs intended to improve security at U.S. ports, it also included an unrelated provision that criminalizes the transfer of funds from financial institutions to internet gambling sites. Since the majority of the bill relates to national security, it passed through both houses of Congress unopposed even though no one on the Senate-House Conference Committee had read the final language. President Bush signed it into law two weeks later. Within days, PartyPoker.com had closed all of its U.S. accounts, restricting my poker play to a friendly Friday night tournament. Even beyond this personal inconvenience, I fail to comprehend the theoretical or legal rationales that criminalize certain forms of gambling. | | | A “victimless crime”
Gambling seems to be a victimless crime—behavior that is forbidden by law, but that neither violates nor threatens the rights of others. For whatever reasons, many consider the exchange of money for sex malum in se, a transaction so incompatible with social mores that criminal penalty should befall those who engage in it. However, this public order argument does not easily translate to the gambling context, as the act in itself seems morally neutral. Illegality aside, a consensual bet that the Giants would beat the Patriots, that Tiger would win the Buick Open, or that England would qualify for the European Cup has more to do with sports fanaticism or expected financial gain than morality. | | | Apart from the moral and theoretical considerations outlined above, the criminalization of particular forms of gambling is simply hypocritical since it is sanctioned and promoted in other guises. State lotteries represent gambling with worse odds than one could find in any casino. New Jersey allows gambling in Atlantic City but not the rest of the state. Many other states allow betting on horse races but no other sports. Insurance companies and financial institutions are fundamentally trillion dollar gambling industries. Government policy towards gambling, especially regarding criminalization, is clearly inconsistent, misguided and ultimately deleterious. | |
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- You begin with a rule prohibiting money transfers and end by asking about the legitimacy of rules against gambling. It seems more reasonable to ask about the legitimacy of the rules against money transferring. On this point, of course, you couldn't just restate the libertarian case against gambling regulation. You could give the stereotypical libertarian case against taxes, too, but that's not really respectable anymore. So the authority to control currency and banking transactions--which can plainly be used for purposes more expedient and unprincipled than are involved here--cannot be employed for this purpose or purposes? That would require some real analysis, which this draft owes us.
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