Online Gambling Opponents Want You to Ignore Their Hypocrisy
In one of my favorite films, 1993’s Tombstone, Doc Holliday, portrayed brilliantly by Val Kilmer was filled to the brim with quotable lines, perhaps none more quotable than when he says, “My hypocrisy only goes so far” as he refuses the badge offered to him prior to the gunfight at the OK Corral.
The scene is poignant (and somewhat reminiscent of the old-school “gambler’s code”) as despite his lawless behavior, his refusal of the badge shows he abides by certain principles, and he’d rather face a possible murder rap than be seen as a hypocrite hiding behind an undeserved and fraudulent badge.
Later in the movie, when he is given his last rights he turns to his friend Wyatt Earp and says, “It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds.” At this point in the movie, and with death not far off, Doc is hedging his bets, and is willing to be a full blown hypocrite if it means there is any chance his soul might be saved.
The reason I bring this up has to do with the current arguments being made by online gambling opponents, whose hypocrisy more resembles Doc at the end of the film.
I can respect someone who lives by Doc Holliday’s initial code on hypocrisy even if I completely disagree with their opinions and stances. I have a much harder time respecting someone whose hypocrisy knows no bounds.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too Governor
Take Texas Governor Rick Perry for instance. In a recent op-ed, Perry states the following:
“At both the state and the federal levels, Internet-gambling proponents are aggressively lobbying to establish the most far-reaching government regulations of the Internet… Once the government starts actively monitoring one aspect of our Internet commerce, is it credible to believe that it will stop there?”
Ok. While I don’t necessarily agree with this assessment that all regulation is bad, and regulating online gambling would be a “slippery slope” to full federal monitoring of the Internet (as if there are enough employees and hours in the day to do such a thing), I do understand this small government, let the state’s decide, mentality that people like Rick Perry ascribe to… he says as much in this line from the column:
“It goes without saying that I think that the federal government ought to stay out of states’ business as much as possible.”
So Perry wants online gambling to be decided at the state level… What’s that you say? Rick Perry actually wants the federal government to get involved in online gambling in perhaps the most intrusive manner possible?
Rick Perry apparently thinks online gambling advocates are “Huckleberries” to use another Tombstone line; simple folk who won’t be able to see through his hypocrisy.
Here’s where Perry’s hypocrisy sets in.
Back in March, Governor Perry penned a letter (or simply signed a letter handed to him considering South Carolina Governor sent the exact same letter) that called for the federal government to ban online gambling; you know the same federal gambling he doesn’t think should regulate the industry.
In Perry’s world banning online gambling and legalizing it are apparently two different actions, while everyone else who can name the three things we are vehemently opposed to see a ban as being just as sweeping and intrusive as legalization.
Another bone to pick
On a different yet related topic, in the letter referenced above that Perry sent to Congress he states, “For decades the U.S. government consistently deemed the Wire Act to prohibit all forms of Internet gambling.”
This sentence might be news to a lot of people considering online poker is only 15 years old (sports-betting and casinos do date back some 20 years) and more importantly, the Justice Department’s first opinion on the Wire Act as it pertains to Internet gambling came in 2002, just 12 years ago, not the decades (plural) Perry’s letter claims.
Furthermore, in 2011 the Justice Department reversed their position, stating that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting.
So Perry’s “decades” is actually better stated as “for a nine year span during its 53-year existence the DOJ has deemed the Wire Act applies to all forms of Internet gambling.”
Perhaps if asked about this slipup Governor Perry can use the tried and true method for removing your foot from your mouth, “oops.”
