UIGE and an American Lament

While some people in the Philippines complain about the coming Internet gambling boom and the “corrupting influence” it will supposedly bring to these shores, on the farther shore of the Pacific Ocean are Americans complaining about the lost jobs. The culprit? The passage of the UIGE Act last year that cut off the financial bloodline of online casinos. 

Everyone knows online gambling won’t completely turn its back on Americans, but we won’t be at the forefront. The newest and best options will pass us by. The newest wrinkles and twists on betting will only come to us second-hand. Worst of all, the endless opportunities for jobs and taxes will instead go to people in Malta, the Philippines, or any of a number of countries embracing the industry. . . . .

So thank Congress and Bill Frist for sending us all into a state of pointless decay. Yes slightly fewer people might gamble online, but how do we as a society win from this? Money not wagered online still tends to find a way into action. The gambling activities are rarely subverted in whole. Besides last time I checked Americans are not lacking in frivolous or downright dumb ways to spend their money.

Many of these ways to spend money increasingly support lower paid service jobs and areas with little American value added. Shopping to your heart’s content and buying made in China products does a lot less good than products designed by Americans, sold by Americans, and taxed by Americans Instead some young Filipino will double his earnings opportunity just because he speaks English, while some potential American sportsbook employee will have to continue to compete against an outsourced Indian or Chinese resource.

Maybe First Cagayan should send a thank you note to US Senator Bill Frist, the Republican from Tennessee? Better yet, how about a few thousand shares in Leisure and Resorts?

Pinoy Poker Championship

Wanna earn P1 million playing a game you love? The Philippine Poker Tour is hosting for the third time its Million-Peso Hold’em Philippine championship on July 7 and 8, 2007. 

But to get that P1 million guaranteed championship purse (it goes higher the more people play), you first have to risk P33,000 — P30,000 as buy-in and another P3,000 for tournament registration fees.

Test Case for Internet Gambling

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Manila Times stating that a court in Angeles is poised to issue ruling on Internet gambling. There’s no doubt that the Philippines needs more jurisprudence to define the boundaries of what’s legal and what’s not when it comes to the Internet.

The government’s campaign against the proliferation of illegal Internet gambling activities hangs in the balance as a judge in Angeles City today hears the motion for reconsideration on the quashing of the search warrant used to raid an alleged illegal Internet gambling operation in a hangar in Clark Field in Pampanga last year.

The article states the government has already lost one round in the battle:

Already, their cornerstone search warrant was quashed in court and the government’s own city prosecutor in Angeles City issued a “novel” finding that PD 1602 (anti-illegal gambling law) “does not punish the crime of Internet gambling.”

The Marcos-era PD 1602 was promulgated years before the Internet revolutionized instantaneous, real-time communication.