Online gambling nearly illegal in the U.S.

Over the weekend, while everyone was tittering over salacious e-mails, the US House of representatives voted to pass HR 4411: "Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act."

It may be hyperbole, but this, I believe, will make it basically impossible to effectively track the real bad guys when thousands and thousands of Americans start to dabble in amatuer money laundering to escape this stupid law.

This is the letter I just sent to my representative:

Mr. McCaul --

I'm writing to you today to express my disappointment in your vote for HR 4411, "Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act." You, along with your fellow Representatives who voted in the affirmative, have basically handed criminal organizations a golden ticket to a massive money laundering enterprise. By forcing otherwise "innocent" online gambling funds into the same black market channels as those funds directed towards international child exploitation, terrorism, and drug trafficking, you have made it that much more difficult to track, catch, and convict those people who are truly doing harm to Americans here and abroad.

This has been a massive mistake, and I think you know that -- otherwise you would not have passed this legislation on a weekend.

Shameful.

Your regretful and Republican constituent --

Tod Beardsley
Election Judge for Travis County, TX