What Does John McCain Mean For Internet Gambling In the US

As we have previously covered statements and comments made by other presidential candidates including Ron Paul and Barack Obama next on the list is the Republican presidential hopeful, John McCain.

His current run for president, is just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame. Running on a platform of strict ethics and honor McCain looks down at online gaming and gambling on sports in general.

According to a 2004 ESPN Article

McCain wants to eliminate what he sees as the most troubling aspects of legalized gambling in the United States. He has led the fight to ban gambling on college sports, a battle the Nevada casinos have won (so far), in part by suggesting that he would make Super Bowl and NCAA pools illegal. (He wouldn’t, since they are zero-sum games, not for-profit enterprises.) And McCain would ban Internet gambling — not because it’s addictive, but because players typically have no way of knowing whether they are in fair games.

While a fair argument is proposed by McCain that he wants to protect the players at online casinos (much better then the general think of the children cause) there are better ways to assure the safety of adults who chose to gamble online or play at online casinos than prohibit their favorite activity which will just drive them underground and offer them no protection at all. McCain has waged his ant-gambling fight for years, albeit not at the forefront as he battled for campaign refinance reform as his number one priority.

As seen in countless other causes, to ban something just drives it further underground, providing less protection for the people who want it, rather then legalizing and regulating the cause. With recent news that the Poker Players Alliance has grown to 1 million members in the US, John McCain may perhaps wants to reconsider his position online gambling before the November election.

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