By Rebecca Weiner
National Journal Technology Daily
Anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has launched an electronic letter-writing campaign opposing a Senate bill that would prohibit online gambling.
"We see any regulation of the Internet as the first step toward taxation of the Internet," said Damon Ansell, ATR's director of state projects. "Regulatory issues are tax issues."
ATR sent an e-mail alert to nearly 4,000 individuals who subscribe to the group's daily update list that urges individuals to "preserve the freedom of the Internet." The e-mail provides a Web link to the Internet Consumers Choice Coalition (ICCC) — a pro-Internet gambling group — that contains an e-mail form letter to S. 692 sponsor Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ.
The letter says the issue is not about gambling, but privacy.
"How many times do we have to tell you people in Congress to keep your hands off the Internet, keep the government out of our living rooms?" the letter reads. "The federal government has no business poking around inside my computer or monitoring my keystrokes just because a few radical Senators don't like what I'm doing online."
Links to the ICCC page also can be found on Web sites supporting online gambling, such as Top 100 Casinos of the World and CasinoWire.
A Kyl staffer found ATR's position surprising, supporters of online gambling have argued that lawmakers should legalize Internet gambling so it could be taxed.
"It's ironically misguided," the staffer said.
"We're not in this because it's pro-gambling," ATR's Ansell said. "We're in this because it's a tax issue."
ATR President Grover Norquist is a member of the congressionally-appointed Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, which is charged with studying the issue of Internet taxes.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Kyl's bill June 17, by a 16-1 vote, and similar legislation passed in the Senate last year 90-10. The Senate probably will not take up the bill until after the recess, since Kyl hasn't indicated he wants it attached to the appropriations bills currently being considered on the floor.
The bill would make it illegal to operate online casinos and require Internet service providers to remove gambling Web sites as soon as they are notified. Casino operators, not individual gamblers, could be fined at least $20,000 and sent to prison under Kyl's proposal. The bill exempts horse and dog racing tracks that use electronic systems, state lotteries and online fantasy sports leagues.
- by Rebecca S. Weiner
© Interactive Gaming Council 1999