Bet Blockers

State gambling laws are likewise open to interpretation, especially when it comes to poker, a game of skill that, depending on whom you ask, may not even qualify as gambling. I. Nelson Rose, a Whittier Law School professor who is a leading authority on gambling law, notes that the UIGEA regulations allow a bank contemplating a relationship with an online gambling business to consider "a reasoned legal opinion that it does not engage in restricted transactions" as evidence of its licit status.

Since they could face penalties for helping a business later judged to be unlawful, American financial institutions have a strong incentive to eschew all Internet gambling, even when it's arguably legal. But there are plenty of ways to evade the UIGEA regulations, including paper checks, credit cards issued by foreign banks, and payments funneled through foreign intermediaries. Rose notes that regulators aren't even talking about preventing individuals from placing bets (which in most states is not illegal) or collecting their winnings.

This week, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is holding a hearing on legislation that points the way out of this silly yet burdensome charade. He wants to legalize online gambling at the federal level and allow states to regulate it as they see fit. Frank says his opposition to gambling prohibition is inspired by a simple proposition: "If individuals like doing something and they harm no one, we will allow them to do it, even if other people disapprove of what they do."

Meanwhile, National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jim Leach, who was one of the UIGEA's main architects as a Republican congressman from Iowa, is embarking on a 50-state tour to promote greater "civility" in political debates. Too bad he was not polite enough to keep his nose out of the private spaces where millions of Americans choose to spend their money on games that offend him.