Washington Think Tank Blasts UIGEA

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a highly respected and influential think tank based out of Washington, D.C., has published a paper which calls for the repeal of the UIGEA.  The tone is established right away, when the first sentence reads, “Hoping to be seen to be ‘doing something’ about the perceived problem of Internet gambling, Congress approved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October of 2006.”  From there, CEI uses five pages to thoughtfully explain why it feels the way it does.

While the majority of the argument is nothing we have not heard before, one interesting aspect of the discussion is that CEI did not write this as a “pro-gambling” or “pro-poker” article.  The author, Eli Lehrer, takes no real sides in the matter.  The closest he comes to a “pro-gambling” stance is when he says that 48 states have some form of legalized gambling.  “America has had a debate over gambling and the pro-gambling side has won,” he states. 

The bulk of the paper focuses on the problems with the law’s implementation, primarily how it will cause problems for banks and their customers.  At the same time, CEI believes the UIGEA will be ineffective, even if some of the implementation issues are sorted out.   

CEI’s feelings on the matter can be summed up with the following statement from early on in the paper, “In short, UIGEA makes almost no financial, social, or economic sense.”  Lehrer even named the “ban” on internet gambling one of the “Five Dumbest Product Bans,” in an article last month. 

At the end, in the paragraph calling for the UIGEA’s repeal, the CEI states, “The law has very little to do with gambling and serves as a poorly thought-out banking regulation fraught with potentially perverse incentives. Quite simply, it is a bad law. Repealing it makes sense.” 

This is an excellent explanation of the major problems with the UIGEA, and it never even delves into the discussion about adults having the right to do what they want with their own money in the privacy of their own homes. 

The complete paper can be found here: http://pokerplayersalliance.org/pdf/CEI_UIGEA.pdf.