October 2, 2006
NEVER BET AGAINST AMERICAN PURITANISM:
£4bn wiped off value of online gambling shares after US law change (Daily Mail, 2nd October 2006)
Around £4 billion was wiped off the value of online gaming stocks today after a controversial move to prevent internet gambling in the United States.Posted by Orrin Judd at October 2, 2006 6:58 PMShares in the sector tumbled by as much as 80 per cent as investors reacted with dismay to new laws in the US which ban banks and credit card companies from processing payments to online casinos.
The legislation was a major blow for firms such as Party Poker owner PartyGaming and 888 Holdings, which rely heavily on the US for business.
The two companies said today that they will suspend business in the US indefinitely once President George Bush signs the Bill into law - a move expected within two weeks.
Ah, what bitter irony after tripling my money in 2004 on "Bush to Win" at Tradesports.
Posted by: John Resnick at October 2, 2006 8:06 PMWhy is it our business if people want to throw their money into a black hole?
Posted by: erp at October 2, 2006 8:07 PMthe "Am I my brother's keeper" question was answered a while ago.
So, state lotteries are ok, but online gambling isn't?
Posted by: Gary at October 2, 2006 11:00 PMThis was the party that was going to get Washington out of our lives.
Posted by: Tom at October 2, 2006 11:07 PMNo, lotteries will be banned too eventually.
Posted by: oj at October 2, 2006 11:09 PMNEVER BET AGAINST AMERICAN PURITANISM:
American Indians are another matter altogether!
The biggest gang on the block controls the vice trade and always gets its cut.
Posted by: ted welter at October 3, 2006 12:46 AMOh boy, inconsequential, tin-eared pre-election moralism: just the thing to win over those voters worried about the priorities of Congressional Republicans. I doubt online gambling was in the top twenty issues for even hardcore theocons. Or even for OJ.
If only they'd banned banks and credit card companies from processing payments to senders of email spam, they'd have been onto something! A cheer would have gone up across the land.
State lotteries are morally preferable to taxes, and a lot more fun for all involved, fuddy-duddies excepted.
Posted by: PapayaSF at October 3, 2006 1:27 AMHow did that 18th amendment thing work out?
Posted by: Daran at October 3, 2006 3:54 AMState lotteries are morally preferable to taxesWhat a morally twisted world you live in, Papaya! Posted by: Kirk Parker at October 3, 2006 4:07 AM
Kirk:
Just as almost all defences of free speech today are raised in the name of the right to insult or offend, so the battlecry of freedom resounds to support vice and indulgence.
Posted by: Peter B at October 3, 2006 6:11 AMDaran:
It worked quite well, improving health and reducing social pathologies, as one would have expected.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2006 8:07 AMPapaya:
That's inconsistent with liberty and, literally, unAmerican.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2006 8:11 AMFreedom to a libertarian is libertinism.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2006 8:17 AMOJ: so why the 21th amendment?
Posted by: Daran at October 3, 2006 8:19 AMThe Depression gave the Left power.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2006 8:26 AMKirk: Yes, a bizarre, twisted world where raising of money through voluntary means is preferable to doing so by force, with the threat of prison.
OJ: Don't Al Capone and extended company count as a "social pathology"? Organized crime was a minor matter before prohibition.
Posted by: PapayaSF at October 3, 2006 2:47 PMIn the first place, that's absurdly ahistorical. in the second, the crime associated with Prohibition was minor compared to the liver disease, spousal abuse, etc, ameliorated by it.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2006 3:05 PM