Could Online Betting Exec's Arrest Help Speed Through Anti-Gambling Laws?

from the how-convenient dept

Fri, Jul 21st 2006 3:32am — Mike Masnick

When BetOnSports' CEO, David Carruthers, was arrested earlier this week, we noted that he had been fairly outspoken the week before about how the House's decision to pass an anti-online gambling bill was nothing to worry about, since the Senate was unlikely to do anything on it. However, it seems that his own arrest may be helping to turn the tide. Senator Frist (last seen insisting on an audio flag) is now pushing to get the Senate's version approved. In fact, it sounds like all the attention from Carruthers' arrest has only made this an issue the Senate is more interested in working on. All in all, this seems like more election season posturing, as politicians try to find "hot button" issues to promote. This exec's own arrest may have catapulted online gambling into the "hot button" realm.

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24 Comments

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Stalker, 21 Jul 2006 @ 4:22am

first
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Ricky Minton, 21 Jul 2006 @ 4:52am

Second?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 5:01am

second.

it's kinda funny how all these stories tell the same thing. nothing is really "new" here. why do this? i dunno

i guess it's hard to tax offshore sites. because taxing would generate a TON of money for the gov, but actually getting it would be difficult.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 6:21am

In my experience, you never want to walk into a court of law in a case where the Govt. is trying to set an example.

This guy might not have to worry about the death penalty, but he may end up having a nice roommate named Bubba soon.
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raekwon, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:28am

it'd be like any other international trade tarriff, they could block access to thier products unless they comply, which I can't imagine is that difficult. It's just another example of the government doing whatever it wants with regards to the entire world.
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Gotti, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:48am

I miss the days...
of the mafia just taking bets....and the illegal poker games in the back rooms....
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Grant Woodward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:55am

Turning the tide? Not so much.
"...However, it seems that his own arrest may be helping to turn the tide. Senator Frist (last seen insisting on an audio flag) is now pushing to get the Senate's version approved...."

If only Bill Frist had that much initiative and independence. Frist (R-TN) was selected for the post of Senate Majority Leader back when the Bush White House was able to use Congress as a somewhat noisy rubber stamp for its policies; and while the Bush Administration has lost a great deal of its political clout, Frist remains one of its most devoted Senatorial mouthpieces. Frist is pushing the online gambling issue because the White House and the RNC are pushing it, not because he's being pulled along by events. It's no coincidence that the US Attorney General is cracking down on online gambling right now -- it's purely a political stunt.

Alberto Gonzales is cracking down on online gambling for the same reason Bush used his first veto ever this week: It's an election year, and off-cycle elections (i.e. elections that don't include a Presidential ballot) are often decided on turnout more than issues, and the conservative base has always been strongly against gambling*. Between the Iraq war, corruption scandals that fall mostly on Republican shoulders, and a mediocre economy that's expected to slow down right as the election approaches, the party in power is being forced to look around for hot-button social issues to get otherwise reluctant parts of its base to the polls. This is only one of many we'll see, and that it's a tech issue is pure happenstance.

It's also worth noting that Sen. Frist is widely expected to run for President in 2008. Bills like this are as much about being able to say "I introduced a bill to crack down on illegal online gambling that hurts children and destroys families" as anything else.

*This includes government-run lotteries, despite what's been mentioned on TechDirt previously. The prevalence of government-sponsored lotteries is a peculiar conflux of fiscal conservatives trying to find some way other than official taxes to fund government budgets they can't cut, and liberals trying to find some way to fund education and other programs in an era of major tax cuts. They are, however, stridently opposed by most social conservatives, for all the usual reasons.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:55am

Raekwon, its not a matter of what the rest of the world does, its a matter of what companies do with US customers.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 8:13am

fuck congress
i swear man everytime you look up they are doing something new to FUCK AMERICA IN THE ASS.. thanks guys..

our government is so fucking corrupt now its sickening, there are not even keeping up the illusion anymore..

they know we know that they are all bought and paid for by corporations that dictate their every move

its supposed to be a government BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE

instead its by corrupt greedy snakes FOR the corrupt greedy corporations

"capitalism" unchecked, running rampant, blocking out competition, perverting laws, screwing the american people... capitalism is RUINING america, its like a cancer, its growing to obesse size, these companies are so big they pervert our government, which does everything it can to protect them... all at the expense of the country, and the world..

this points out some serious flaws of man
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 8:17am

When less than 50% of citizens actually vote, don't know how you can expect it to be a government of the people.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 8:25am

Re:
why do dumb ass kids always say "first post" and crap like that? get a f'ing life
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Ron (profile), 21 Jul 2006 @ 8:43am

Arrest
From the story pointed to above: ""Illegal commercial gambling across state and international borders is a crime," said Catherine Hanaway, US attorney in St Louis." I guess that illegal commercial gambling, etc. may be actually illegal (well, that's what she said) but, if a gambling operation is leagl someplace and that's where it's run, then it's not really an illegal ... across international boarders. The Internet creates a worldwde venue for lots of stuff. If our f*cking Congress is so worried about gambling then block access to the stuff at our boarders. We should not be policing the rest of the world (we've actually done a pretty crappy job of that the past couple of decades). So, was the guy arrested because he ran betting shops in the UK and Costa Rica (where betting IS legal) or was he arrested for actually breaking a US law on US territory? As many countries will eagerly tell us, US laws do not apply to foreign citizens on foreign soil.
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Proch, 21 Jul 2006 @ 9:07am

Re:
Why vote though? The previous poster hit it right on the head ("i swear man everytime you look up they are doing something new ...")

They've got everyone confused enough to pick a side and argue over meaningless issues - while really they (republicans and democrats) actually ARE the same team that stands for corruption. If you vote, you only support the corruption. It's the system itself that's broken. Republicans and Democrats are both equally corrupt, they just have different players and methods.
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David, 21 Jul 2006 @ 9:37am

Representative Government...
Millions of americans want to gamble. I dont even hear millions of americans against it. why then would our 'representative government' deem it illegal. Oh yeah that's right cause they're dirty bastards
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Lay Person, 21 Jul 2006 @ 10:25am

Money...
Look people:

Money is destroying our nation. Money in our political system is displacing values of integrity, honesty, accountability, and responsibility with the value of the dollar.

Our founding fathers NEVER considered the impact money would have on our government. In fact, at the time, money was to be printed by congress. But, after the turn of this century, the banks and rich people in all their great wisdom and power decided it would be better if the money wasn't distrubuted or controlled by governement but rather by an independent, private entity called the Federal Reserve.

Why?... Because this method enables the banks to dictate to government and NOT the other way around. Modern economics is the new American government all else takes a back seat including our constitution.

What we see and hear about is all just fluff and staged sets designed to look, feel and sound like a legitimate, constitutional, democratic government . In fact we are ruled and controlled by money, economics, etc...

Our money has no real value. It's only worth is the faith that people have in it. This faith in money is also designed to relieve ourselves of thinking that our money is fake and worthless for all intensive purposes. We used to have a gold standard, meaning that the paper dollar has a relative value in gold at the depository in Fort Knox.

After the depression, the banks decided to remove the gold based standard and replace it with faith, GOD or whatever you want to call nothingness. The American people never even flinched. Why?... Because we want to believe our government knows what it's doing. All this faith in nothingness blinded us just long enough to realize we've been duped. The gold at Fort Knox was cleverly stolen by the banks and leaving us with nothing more than paper, ink, and false hope.

This has managed to subvert all our checks and balances because the decisions are made not at any federal level but at the finacial level. All that remains of our government are hollow, shell-like branches of government all suckling off the modern economics teat.
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too tired, 21 Jul 2006 @ 11:13am

Re: Re:
Why have dumb ass kids ever done anything? They are bored out of their gourds. Also, you are correct about the US government.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 12:20pm

sure enough
greed
money is the root of all evil

greed and stupidity is what will destroy the human race
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E, 21 Jul 2006 @ 1:08pm

Could Online Betting Exec's Arrest Help Speed Thro
I heard the U.S. is breaching World Trade rules by not excepting any wagers within the U.S. The WTO will have 90 days to investigate and report to see if the U.S. is complying with the WTO rulings. If this is true, this should be very interesting.
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Raekwon, 21 Jul 2006 @ 1:25pm

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

Leonardo da Vinci
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Proch, 21 Jul 2006 @ 7:57pm

Re: Money...
Originally, the founders of the country had a good idea though... that being - if you reward the best and brightest with the money, then your country will produce the best and the brightest over time.

The idea is true, and can't be argued. the problem is that the ideals have been perverted over time by scumbags.

we need to wipe clean and start over - adjusting the rules slightly enough to keep the corruption out.
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Lay Person, 24 Jul 2006 @ 12:39pm

Re: Re: Money...
True.

Also, yes money is a tool that has proven quite useful.

However, money often is misused for the wrong purposes.

Every U.S. Citizen should take an ethics course while growing up. They should throw it in with History, Biology, etc...keep pumping them with moral responsibility and actual values.

Somewhere, somehow, we are cranking out bigger and worse scumbags as time goes by. Where is it all coming from? Something is wrong somewhere. How did a guy like Bush even get close to office?

I just don't know anymore...
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why do you care?, 15 Nov 2006 @ 3:00am

fucking bastids.
Money is evil, it has ruined peoples lives, because the world revolves around it. If you don't have money, you're worthless, although money itself is worthless. The faith in money is so grand it is overpowering faith in anything else. Capitalists are fucking assholes, and Democrats are Republicans that hide it very well.. they lie through their clenching teeth, and make pretend they're wonderful people, who just want the best for this country when in reality they're a disaster waiting to happen.. American Government is a piece of shit, voting is pointless, a complete waste of time.. all the retards that put their faith into that machine, let alone this damned country, just silly..
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Mar 2010 @ 2:21am

Congress is corrupt because of two reasons:
1. deals made between representatives
2. riders

If only 30% support a given bill and 70% oppose it, they just add in some pork to help 21% of the opposition, giving 51% support.

Congress can pass ANYTHING. Not a legitimate representative body.

Solution:
1. Make congress vote by secret ballot
2. New amendment to constitution: No riders. One bill, one law.
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gadzooks, 13 Jan 2011 @ 6:47pm

the good old usofa
of the rich, by the rich and for the rich,period.
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