Sunday, October 22, 2006

Welcome to America's new Prohibition - Analysis - Times Online

Welcome to America's new Prohibition

I'm not a big fan of gambling but I'm even less of a fan of being told what I can't do. And with my aversion to unenforcable laws of all sorts, I must note Jim Leach's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. So do the Brits:

"Religious leaders of all denominations and faiths are seeing gambling problems erode family values," said Iowa Republican Jim Leach.


Mister Moderate going on about "family values" makes Jim Leach sound a lot like... a Republican!

Once again in America, it seems that God is helping Mammon: Mr. Leach’s law promises to spawn another underground industry to serve Americans living under the new Prohibition. The industry was adamant that, far from stopping internet gambling, the move would simply drive the business underground. As one senior executive said at the time: "The happiest person about this ban will be Don Corleone."


Yes! An excuse for a Godfather reference?

VITO CORLEONE: ...gambling or liquor -- even women -- which is something that most people want nowadays, and is, ah, forbidden to them by the pezzonovante of the Church.

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