Attempting to draft and pass legislation in American is fun to watch--especially the debate engulfing proposed legislation to prohibit gambling over the Internet. Watchers need a score card to keep up with which way various special interest groups are blowing. Already, some pretty unusual alliances have been formed, while exceptions are being pressed for pari-mutuel wagering and lottery ticket sales.
Whether or not lottery tickets are ever sold on the Internet is almost beside the point. So many special interest groups have sent comments to legislators about the Goodlatte version of the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, that Washington D.C. residents and politicians need a shovel to dig their way out. Among them is the National Governors' Association, which has contributed to the paper storm by sending a plea to leave lottery ticket sales control in the hands of state governments. Such control would permit lottery tickets to be sold over the Internet, if the state so chooses. Of course, no state has announced such a decision, although at least one state, Ohio, has tentatively begun research into the issue.
The National Governors' Association's letter to the House Committee on the Judiciary reads as follows:
April 4, 2000
The Honorable Henry J. Hyde
Chairman
House Committee on the Judiciary
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 |
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Minority Member
House Committee on the Judiciary
2142 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 |
Dear Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Conyers:
On behalf of the National Governors’ Association, we are writing to express our interest in H.R. 3125, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. We appreciate your efforts to address the troubling problems posed by Internet gambling. We support the legislation's objective of ensuring that gambling is regulated by the appropriate state and federal laws and that the availability of online gambling does not circumvent the applicability or enforcement of any of these laws.
We would also like to urge you to maintain the exemptions currently included in H.R. 3125 for state lotteries when lawful wagers are placed either at a facility that is open to the general public or when the person placing the wager uses an individualized name and password. We understand that there may be efforts to strip the bill of these provisions, and we encourage you to oppose such attempts. States possess the authority to regulate gambling within their own borders and must continue to be allowed to do so. An incursion into this area with respect to online gambling would establish a dangerous precedent with respect to gambling in general as well as broader principles of state sovereignty.
Sincerely,
| Governor
Michael O. Leavitt |
Governor
Parris N. Glendening |