George Will and I rarely see eye to eye on anything (understatement), which is why I would never have seen this column had @TheEngineer2008 pointed it out on Twitter. But in his latest Washington Post column, Will stumps for the passage of pro-online poker legislation after what seems like a conversation with Howard Lederer.
The piece opines about the criminalization of online gambling, which imposes on personal freedoms. Keeping the government out of private homes used to be something that the conservative movement traditionally viewed as an important and core issue, and Will stays true to that belief with his recent article.
It is a poker skill to know when to hold \’em and when to fold \’em. Congress probably should fold its interference with Internet gambling and certainly should get its 10 thumbs off Americans\’ freedom to exercise their poker skills online.
Interesting, however, that he misses a key point when describing the threefold interest of Lederer in the issue…
First, his libertarian temperament — he lives in Las Vegas, where almost anything goes — is offended by mother-hen government. Second, he wants as many people as possible to have access to poker\’s delights. Third, the more poker players there are, the larger will be the ranks of competitors, and the television audiences, for professional poker competitions. Hence the larger will be the potential winnings.
Full Tilt Poker, the cash cow of Lederer and others, stands to be one of the first sites to receive a license and legally cater to U.S. customers should the legislation pass. That doesn\’t in any way discount his other reasons for pushing for the bills, but disclosing his part in FTP might be pertinent.