If early reports are any indication, David Carruthers, CEO of BetOnSports, came out on top in the debate, between himself and U.S. Congressman Jim Leach, over Leach’s anti-online gambling efforts. Carruthers came armed with facts and figures to rebut the anti-online gambling allegations raised by Congressman Leach in his effort to support his latest anti-online gambling proposal. The Wall Street Journal Online hosted and mediated the debate, which was conducted via email exchanges. The Wall Street Journal covered the email exchange in detail and pointed to an earlier online poll they conducted that found that 85 percent of the more than 10 000 surveyed by the poll opposed an online gambling ban in the USA. Leach’s bill is aimed at destroying the online gambling industry via the banking sector. The bill would use the banking industry to police online gambling sites by banning the use of credit cards, checks, and money transfers for Internet wagering transactions. It was marked up in a sub-committee earlier in the month and referred to the full House Judiciary Committee for another hearing. While debating the merits of the bill, Congressman Leach argued that Internet gambling sites “sweep dollars out of the U.S. into largely unknown, often criminal hands." In response, Carruthers argued that those involved in the online gambling industry want to regulate online gambling for the very same reason that Leach and others in Congress want to prohibit the activity. "Prohibiting online gambling would be catastrophic," he said. "Prohibiting the industry would have the exact opposite effect to what the congressman seeks. Prohibition would not stop online gambling, it would send it underground and leave the vulnerable unprotected." Through an exchange of emails, Leach and Carruthers continued their online debate. One of the highlights of the debate was when Carruthers offered Leach an open invitation to visit the BetOnSports corporate facility in San Jose, Costa Rica. He also suggested that the two could even sit down in a Washington face-to-face and more in-depth discussion of the issue. Leach declined, on ethical grounds saying that it would be “ethically dubious, if not illegal” for him to visit the company’s operations. Early consensus from several experts in the online gambling industry reported that Carruthers came out favorably during the debate and advanced a generally positive image of online gambling while, at the same time, pointing out flaws in the motivation and reasoning behind Leach’s legislation. Posted on: April 18, 2006
Back to April 2006's archive |
||||||||||||
|
Del.icio.us
Digg
Google
Spurl
Furl
Simpy
Y! MyWeb