Amazed at the LACK of news coverage on this legislation

[Nottom]

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Now you have a better idea for how unimportant online gambling is to most people. The public doesn't care about this issue.

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I don't think this is really true. The thing that seems odd to me is that there seemed to be a lot more coverage when the house "gambling ban" passed than this one, even though this is the one that actually does something.

Also, I'm disappointed that in most of the news coverage I've seen they are making it seem like Congress just passed some "internet gambling ban" and are either not mentioning or just skirting past the fact that it was just kind of stuck onto the port security bill. I think this sort of tactic would make it interesting to the general public, even if they don't care about internet gambling.

[rwesty]

http://www.startribune.com/535/story/717083.html

[Tom Bayes]

A couple of comments:

1. I'm not surprised at the lack of media response outside our little world. My non-poker friends don't know this happened. They don't care. I tend to lean left in my politics, but I noticed that this isn't even a blip on the liberal blogosphere. No one is talking about it at The Daily Kos.

As far as this article:

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http://www.startribune.com/535/story/717083.html

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Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, has led the gambling crackdown in the House of Representatives. Greg Wierzynski, a spokesman for Leach, said Monday that "<font color="red">gambling</font> from your bedroom or living room or dormitory <font color="red">is not a socially useful activity.</font>"

I'm glad Mr. Wierzynski set me straight. I'm ashamed of being so socially useless over the past few years. Can the 2+2 readers please help provide me with a list of socially useful activities?

[Yuv]

Funny that it gets little media coverage in the US, but this story was on section A of all the major daily newspapers in Israel. This mostly due to 888 being an Israeli company, along with a lot of the onling gaming industry companies..

[MicroBob]

Many would argue that watching TV or surfing the net are not socially useful activities.
That certainly shouldn't be enough to make it illegal.

I would also argue that being a spokesperson for a Republican congressman is perhaps higher on the 'not a socially useful activity' scale.

[CrazyIrishman]

Video report about the gambling ban is on the front page of cnn.com right now

[TheAnswer]

Orange County Times had a small blurb on page 2 of business.

Its main topic was "whiny message boards" that are "brainstorming ways to skirt the ban" as well as sites that are planning to take gold as payment instead of $. The title was "Gamblers scramble to circumvent law".

I spit up dr.pepper laughing at one or two lines. Then I cried till the ink on the paper ran.

[MikeTexas]

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Now you have a better idea for how unimportant online gambling is to most people. The public doesn't care about this issue.

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The amount of coverage an issue gets in the mainstream media isnt a direct refelction of how important that topic might be to the general public.

My guess is that if more people knew about this anti-gambling legislation more people would be speaking out against it because:

a) Americans dont like having their freedoms resitricted by the federal government

b) they would be turned off by the tactics used to ratify the bill ie attatching it to a defense bill

The focus of the media is more a reflection of what the government/business community is drawn to as opposed to the geberal public.

[Wetdog]

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Can the 2+2 readers please help provide me with a list of socially useful activities?

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Lottery, horse racing and bingo come to mind. It's fun for the whole family.

[The Bride]

Those that are concerned about the civil liberty issue have bigger things on their minds right now than the loss of online gambling.