As Congress debates proposed regulations governing unsolicited email – or "spam" – it should consider how these measures could harm the Internet. While new laws would not reduce spam, they would endanger the Internet’s unique civic and political structure and, consequently, its ability to promote freedom and democracy. This month, Nevada’s legislature laid the foundation for legalized online gambling. Federal lawmakers, poised to ban this activity, should take the opportunity to rethink their approach. Prohibition would not avert the gambling threat and could harm the Internet.
U.S. federal gaming laws, which have not been updated to reflect the information age, remain murky, but many experts agree that online casinos are illegal. While this makes it difficult for gambling sites to operate within the United States, they are flourishing offshore, where roughly 1400 sites take bets on sports or virtual casino games.
According to a March report by Bear, Stearns, these sites earned $1.6 billion last year and will rake in $5 billion by 2003. U.S. citizens are driving this growth; a study last year by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that approximately one million Americans gamble online every day. These numbers explain why, in a sharp reversal, the U.S. casino industry recently embraced web casinos.
In May, the American Gaming Association ended its efforts to ban Internet gambling. Eager to please Nevada’s most lucrative industry, the state legislature followed suit on June 4, when it authorized the state Gaming Commission to begin licensing gambling sites. This signals acceptance that the web defies strict regulation. Overseas sites are effectively beyond U.S. jurisdiction, and individual gamblers can hide by routing through foreign servers. But U.S. sites can’t start awarding cash until Congress says so, and some Washington lawmakers remain bent on prohibition.
Since 1997, Congress has tried to pass seven different prohibition bills and Senator Robert Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, plans to take up the fight again this year. Goodlatte claims the Internet, by turning children into addicts, will spawn a gambling epidemic. “Children have the opportunity to go online and use the family credit card to gamble away the mortgage,” he argues. But if Goodlatte really wants to protect kids, he should follow Nevada’s lead and reverse course now.
Gambling is only one of many potentially dangerous habits that can be formed online. The goal is to teach web surfers to behave responsibly in this environment that tempts them to do otherwise. Outright prohibition, which merely repeats past mistakes, is not a means to this end.
For years, legislators have tried to protect individuals by limiting access to their vices. But this supply-side mentality ignores the reality that appetites for these activities persist. The Internet makes this painfully clear.
In the past, lawmakers controlled gambling by isolating casinos to distant locations. This approach portrayed gambling as a legitimate activity with potentially dangerous consequences. Today, the Internet carries blackjack and bookies into our living rooms. Legal prohibition neither stops this migration nor teaches individuals how to resist temptation.
Conservative politicians like Mr. Goodlatte, so eager to interpret issues like school violence as problems of values, not laws, contradict themselves when they propose stern legislation for the web. It is time for all legislators to embrace the harsh truth that government almost never protects individuals from themselves. Citizens must possess solid values and a strong sense of responsibility, traits that modern laws fail to promote. The good news is that, while the Internet cannot parent our children, it can promote responsible behavior once the foundation is in place.
Internet users quickly learn to become their own moral authority, regardless of laws. When confronted by dangerous ideas or activities, Netizens are alone with their own judgment. Every click of the mouse becomes a decision that carries consequences. This creates a sense of individualism and responsibility. But it does not protect Internet users from mistakes, which carry consequences online and off.
Irresponsible users will fall victim to their own indiscretion. Internet gambling will sometimes lead to a gambling addiction, but that’s one of the dangers of a free society. By establishing government as a watchdog, legislators would create a false sense of security among parents who should be dedicated to managing their children’s online behavior. Legislators should avoid this course and its dangerous precedents by establishing individuals, not politicians, as the moral arbiters of cyberspace.
Justin Matlick is a Senior Fellow for the Center for Freedom and Technology at the California-based Pacific Research Institute.
