What have we gotten ourselves into? The World Trade Organization recently ruled against the U.S. concerning online gambling. The Feds believe in a free and open Internet as long as that precludes U.S. citizens gambling online. Hmm.. I see some problems with this position.

Namely, the message we are sending is that we only support our citizens gambling if the money flows into state or federally sanctioned events. If the gambling occurs on the Internet and the money flows out of our borders then there is a problem. What about free trade? The world economy? Freedom? How about the Constitutional right of the states to rule on all matters not explicitly granted to the federal government? Strangely, gambling is not one of the matters that the federal government has been explicitly granted dominion over.

The feds have been exerting pressure on various business parties that work with the offshore gambling operations such as Visa and Mastercard. As a result of this pressure you can no longer use your Visa or Mastercard to fund offshore gambling. I am not a gambler, I just don’t see the lure so the fed’s actions don’t harm me but they may harm you.

It’s a cold day in hell when your rights are protected by the WTO. Hope you brought a coat.