State lotteries, online or off, are legal. Poker, online or off, isn't?
What's the difference? My belief is that it is the ability of the bureaucrats to extract their cut. If Washington was getting a nice big chunk of the pie they wouldn't give a second thought to the industry.
Pokerati points out a story on the recent rumblings in D.C. attempting to throttle online gambling.
One of the main points used to bemoan the rise of internet gambling is "the children", because having gambling sites available means that children around the world will be getting addicted. As Las Vegas & Poker points out:
If there's any one single thing that will keep online poker from legality, it's the same old argument that keeps vintners from shipping wine across state lines - What about the children? What the hell are these kids doing with their parents' credit cards anyway? Hell, our dad kept a stash of quarters in a Crown Royal bag in his top drawer, and god help us if that bag had shifted an eighth of an inch from on top of his Playboys due to our need to buy a Slurpee or some Fun Dip. If we had bought a box of '88 Donruss with a pilfered credit card? We don't even want to think of the consequences. Maybe the real warning should be Why can't mom keep her Visa in her purse?
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention I would rather have children playing with broken glass than playing with mySpace, the glass just seems safer to me.....