When online gambling - or funding off-shore gambling accounts to be more specific - became illegal due to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the landscape of online gambling changed drastically.
Americans were no longer able to visit an online casino or poker site and open a real-money account. They were, and still are, supposed to be protected by the government from the evils of online gambling.
However, sometimes those in charge connect online gambling to really horrific issues, one more outrageous than the other.
Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama, has for instance made absurd links between teen suicide and online gambling. He claims that one third of the teenagers who gambles online eventually try to commit suicide. Where did he get those figures?
For some unknown reason he also lumps together online gambling and pornography. "We are going to try to stop child pornography and illegal gambling over the Internet. We don't want you partnering, as the FBI says, with child pornography sites and pornography sites," Bachus said.
Luckily there are also voices of reason represented in politics. Watch Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speak before the congress. He has a somewhat more sober view on the whole online-gambling issue.
