While every red-blooded Luddite in the United States might be waiting for Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl to announce a bid for the presidency, he's not so popular with other groups interested in technology. Some question the enforceability of Kyl's prize legislation, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, particularly the fact that the version passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee places much of the burden of enforcement squarely on the shoulders of Internet service providers (ISPs), some of whom say the job is all but impossible.
As business writer Joe Salkowski wrote recently in the Chicago Tribune, "Never mind that, on a
scale of national problems, Internet gambling rates about as high as cold cheese on ballpark nachos. If our elected leaders want to outlaw behavior that has been met with either indifference or enthusiasm by most Americans, that's certainly their right. But Congress ought to at least ask the government to do its own dirty work."
ISP representatives seem to agree. "[The Kyl bill] assumes ISPs will mystically have the ability to
selectively block gambling sites, which is utter nonsense," said Dave McClure, executive director of the Association of Online Professionals, which represents Bell Atlantic and other ISPs. "The bill simply cannot be enforced."
Kyl and his staff argue that such policing can be done without too much trouble. They also note that the bill allows ISPs to protest to a federal judge if law enforcement requests impose an unreasonable burden on their business. But haggling with the Feds and going to court sounds expensive--they certainly aren't the sorts of burdens a fledgling industry needs retarding growth and innovation.