Playing the game

As an advocate of the free-market it saddens me to read things like this article on Internet gambling legislation. Now, it's not so much that Congress is trying to prohibit nothing more than a mere vice - I expect such things from those who see it as their duty to mold the masses into good little citizens.

What really saddens me about this article is the following quote from the gaming industry representative

"It has to be able to be properly regulated and controlled. If it is we'd be interested," said Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., the gaming association's president, of online gambling.

This quote upsets me because it comes from the industry representative and he is asking for regulation.

Now I am not so naive to think that this is the first time such a thing has occurred. This happens more often than most people think. In fact, in the so-called Progressive Era this sort of thing happened all the time. What the gaming association wants is for its members to be free from offshore competition. They don't mind regulation just as long as they get to influence the regulators, and Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. is a longtime Washington insider who knows how to play the game (pun intended).

I guess it just upsets me when I see those who reap the benefits of the free-market ask for its abrogation.