online gamblingTHERE is of course no evidence of a direct causal
link, but it is good news all the same that the day our debate
on gambling policy concluded in favour of liberalisation, and
three weeks after the publication of our survey advocating same,
the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill to
licence operators of online-gambling sites. A companion bill
will allow those companies, and any winnings players derive from
them, to be taxed. Barney Frank, hardly a reliable propounder of
libertarian sentiment, introduced the bill more than a year ago,
and said in supporting it that "some people may spend their
money foolishly, but it is not the purpose of the federal
government to prevent them legally from doing it." To which we
can only add: hear, hear.  Of course, Congress being the
molasses-soaked Rube Goldberg machine that it is, even in the
best-case scenario it will still be a long time before online
gambling actually becomes legal. Even so, one day after the vote
was taken, PartyGaming and B