Fiddlers Strut by the Ozark Mountain Choir

Dan Taylor
February 18, 2010
11 Comments

OzarkLobbyThere’s a fresh report out of Washington that identifies the top lobbyists in terms of dollars spent at the state and federal levels in 2007/08. The National Education Association sits atop the roost, but positions two through four are American Indian tribes with gambling interests. In fact, Indian tribes make up six of the top ten lobbying efforts in the Center for Responsive Politics study. Taken together, these six tribes spent $160M to gain access to American politicians, so clearly, they have something very important they want to whisper into those influential ears.

What they want, of course, is legal internet gambling. That shouldn’t come as a shock, because virtually everyone wants that. The difficulties arise when you start trying to define just what legal
internet gambling in the US will look like, and who ends up sitting in the catbird seat.

The legal, licensed international companies want internet gambling legalized in the US, provided they are allowed the same access to American consumers that would be granted to any domestic outfit. The Indian tribes want it legalized, but only if they don’t have to compete with the licensed international companies. Domestic land-based casino conglomerates such as Harrahs also want to keep the international companies out of any future US market, yet would claim for themselves the right to offer services beyond their own borders. (In this, they take their ‘American exceptionalism’ cue from the way the Office of the US Trade Representative has traditionally viewed WTO dispute resolutions that don’t go its way, i.e. it doesn’t apply to us, because we had our fingers crossed when we signed on, or something.)

Despite what they might say publicly, the various levels of government in the US are chomping at the bit to tax the hell out of everyone involved and feed some desperately needed revenues into their depleted coffers. Hell, even the US sports leagues want it, although they’d never admit that (but NBA commissioner David Stern almost let the mask slip in his recent Sports Illustrated interview).

The one group that actually doesn’t want to see internet gambling legalized in America is the religious right, despite the fact that they can never offer much of a concrete justification for their stance beyond “it’s in the Bible” (along with that bit about spending eternity in Hell for daring to wear a garment made from two different fibers – yeah, I’m looking at YOU, guy in the 50/50 polyester/cotton t-shirt). But with the economy in the tank, evangelicals are losing ground to fiscal conservatives in their ability to dictate public policy, and a new poll shows younger Catholics are proving to be less dogmatic in their views on gambling, so this particular lobby’s influence may be waning.

So with virtually everyone down with the idea of legal internet gambling in the US, why hasn’t it happened already? Truth is, it will, someday. Perhaps in another decade or so, all the competing interests will have worked out their differences and come to some sort of mutually acceptable arrangement. But in the meantime, all the players are too busy circling around the only chair in the room, eyeing each other warily, waiting for the square dancing music to stop so that they can beat the others to the punch and end up as the chair’s sole (and fabulously wealthy) occupant.

Me, I’m going to be sitting right here on the big comfy couch, popcorn in hand, watching the show. It’s actually a pretty good vantage point, especially since I didn’t have to pay any politician so much as a dime for it.

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