iMEGA today voiced its opposition to a provision, contained within legislation to ban on-line gambling while legalizing casinos in Massachusetts, at a State House hearing in Boston. The provision is unconstitutional because it tramples on Americans’ inalienable First Amendment rights and would, if implemented, exert a harsh chilling effect on Internet innovation running the grave risk of sharply stifling the growth of electronic commerce.
“It is ironic for a bill to legalize gambling in Massachusetts to outlaw and severely punish gambling online. It simply makes no sense,” said Joe Brennan, Jr., Chairman of iMEGA. “How can an activity that is legal in 48 of the 50 states be a criminal act simply because it utilizes the Internet? If an American has the right to choose in the “real world,” shouldn’t they enjoy that very same right when they are online?”
The protection of digital civil rights and the ability of all Americans to exercise their freedoms with an expectation of privacy, in a safe and protected manner, is as important as it has been to protect the right of every American to engage in the freedom of speech. It is imperative that haphazard government regulation of Internet not create a slippery slope, whereby lawmaking encroaches on all aspects of Internet use, severely hampering innovation, commerce and information, as well as individual rights of personal privacy.
“Like many of the government’s forays into cyberspace, these efforts are well intended but yield the considerable practical problems of unintended consequences,” Brennan said. “In this case, Americans’ right to privacy and freedom of expression are imperiled by overzealous lawmaking.”
Today, readily-available commercial technology already exists to effectively address the social problems that opponents of Internet gambling seek to remedy, without abridging Americans’ rights. Electronic content filtering and financial vectoring are just some of the tools utilized by industry and individuals every day to ameliorate the social ills ostensibly serving to motivate the proponents of this provision. It is ironic, then, that the very groups that this provision is intended to protect — such as children and individuals with addictive disorders — would be made more vulnerable by its implementation.
Currently, iMEGA is engaged with the Department of Justice in litigation in Federal court over the constitutionality of the Unlawful Internet Gaming and Enforcement Act (UIGEA), a bill that banned most Internet gaming nationally. iMEGA believes the challenge to UIGEA will fundamentally shape the future of the Internet and determine whether Americans’ right to privacy will be protected online or dismissed.
Consequently, as this case makes its way through the legal system, we believe that it would be best for the Massachusetts Legislature to remove this provision from the legislation and at the very least wait until the courts have acted on the legality of online gambling.
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