(a commentary from IGN's friends in the parimutuel industry)
Nevada's casino industry, which doesn't like the idea of Internet competition, got a big boost yesterday from its former regulator, Bill Bible, during the National Gambling Impact Study Commission's 'retreat' in Virginia Beach, VA.
Bible led the charge, along with that bastion of purity the NCAA, to ban Internet wagering. "Just because it is difficult does not mean we should not try to enforce it," Bible told his colleagues, and Bill Saum, director of agent and gambling activities for the NCAA -- on whose games hundreds of millions are bet each year -- was worried about Internet conspiracy in dormitories where students "could try to influence the outcome of a game."
A voice of reason on the panel was heard from when Robert Loescher, a commissioner from Alaska, said, "Prohibition defies what we know about technology and is not realistic."
The racing industry, which is scheduled to be heard by the commission March 18, had better get its act together -- and its friends in Congress, if any -- to make Loescher's point clear instead of pussy-footing around simply hoping for 'the best we can get'. A grass roots wave of protest from owners, trainers, breeders, drivers, jockeys and everyone else with a stake in the business would at least let House members know someone cared about a ban that will take racing years to get lifted.