Michael Bennet's (D-Colorado) and Chuck Schumer's (D-New York) Senate victories held the line and Congressman Frank was easily re-elected. But the more hopeful news for gamblers was the the good showing by several Libertarians in Republican clothing. Libertarian thinkers simply do not tolerate the thought of the Federal Government dictating morality to we citizens. Ron Paul is the most well-known of these well placed practitioners of the Constitution and was joined Tuesday by his son Rand Paul who won a US Senate seat in Kentucky.
The 'tea-party', though eventually infiltrated and co-opted by neocons, "right-wingnuts", and fundamentalists was originally a Libertarian movement and the Pauls still have a great sway. The 'party' vows to target in the next election any Congressman or Senator that attempts to circumvent State's Rights. Any reasonable person would agree that the right to gamble is the business of the person's state of residence, not the feds.....
The rest of the results are a mixed bag for sure. Maine joined the ranks of states with full scale gambling when voters narrowly passed an amendment that will allow Black Bear Entertainment LLC to build a $165 million full service casino. Maine's only other casino is the Hollywood Slots in Bangor, which has no table games.
Oregon voters turned down the opportunity for the state's first non-tribal casino near Portland.
The Argosy Casino in Sioux City, Iowa had a pass vote of 76% allowing them to renew their license for another eight years.
Cape Girardeau, Mo. voters turned out in record numbers to give a thumbs up to a casino there.
The newly elected governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley says he will decommission the former governor's task force on illegal gambling and seek legal opinions on electronic gambling.
But overall our hopes are dimmed with the resurgence in Washington and in the Statehouses of Republican lawmakers who have so far not been the online gambler's best friend.
And though Nevada is the only state where gambling is legal statewide there were at last count 19 states with some sort of commercial casino operations comprising more than 450 casinos. These good folks in office now need to see that 'online gambling' is here to stay, and they need to wake up to the fact that no matter what form of prohibition or legislated morality they are trying to pass off, people are going to gamble.
We can do it piecemeal and let all kinds of special interests build up their power, or we can do it right by forming commissions to study the best ways to normalize and regulate this simple expression of personal freedom and self direction.
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The Gambling Guru
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