Legislation Gone Wrong - Another Feather in the Cap of a Useless Congress

I always knew Friday the 13th meant strange and scary things were about to happen.

This year is no different.
This past Friday, the US officially passed a law making playing poker online (for money) illegal.

My Xbox will be re-introduced to me more than ever now...

As if my personal feelings on this issue aren't clear already, let me give you a quick tour of my personal experience.

I played poker online for money. I have been doing so for a number of years. It wasn't illegal, it wasn't against my religion, and quite frankly, it was a pretty harmless way to pass a few hours or earn a little money to go out on the weekends with. I never gambled with anything important - ten, twenty dollars was usually what I played with, and it was usually what I ended up winning or losing at the end of the day. It beat blowing my money on other things, and for the entertainment value, it was the only one I could think of that I could interact with new people from the comfort of my room after a long day of being a worker, being a student, whatever.

The game particularly endeared me when college ended. I was at a particular crossroads, where the MLB draft didn't work out for me as planned, I had no plane ticket to a random city to play ball in, I was graduated but I had no job yet, and I knew I wanted to live in Chicago. Problem was, I was still in Ann Arbor. I had NO money. Really, completely none. It all went towards my education up until that point.
My choices included:
-sitting there with no money, looking for work in Ann Arbor, and having to find someplace to stay once my lease ended (about a month later).
-getting home somehow, living with my grandparents, and pursuing much more permanent positions in the place I wanted to be.

So in my quest to figure out how I would accept the second choice, I sat on my computer and played poker to take my mind off of things. I ended up winning. And winning a pretty considerable amount of money for me at the time, over the course of 2 weeks. I started shopping for cars online ---
I found something that I could buy - with the money I won with online poker.
1100 dollars later, I was in a '90 Cutlass Cierra, a car I should've probably never purchased for reasons of health and safety, but nonetheless, I got it, drove home to Chicago, and life has been a wonderful journey ever since.

With work, social life stuff, and other pursuits, I didn't have a lot of chances to play much online poker anymore. Once or twice a week was frequent, and a couple of times a month was typical.
It was fun, it was harmless, and most of all, it let me tell some funny stories to my friends.

However, now this is all gone (at least for now). I am not sure if it is a question of the government trying to dictate our morality ( btw how could this be an immoral behavior? - I can think of a lot worse things in life that are routinely celebrated in our culture) , trying to enforce its rules on "gambling" regulations (which seems ridiculous, in light of almost every 'riverboat' casino now being brought to land, chicago's push for its own casino, and the rules of Indian casinos being about as loose as loose can be), or an issue in a larger economic agenda (ding ding ding?!) - but I cannot help but think that this is sketchy legislation at best.

Think about this:

pharmaceutical companies with virtual monopolies on specific prescription drugs will continue to sell them at extremely inflated prices - allowing them to pay entry-level employee's upwards of 80,000 a year or more, and near-bankrupting elderly people throughout the country and forcing companies to scale back retirement and health benefits at an alarming rate - and no important legislation controlling the prices of these products, sometimes necessary for life itself, has gotten close to being passed through our Congress. Who benefits from this? Certain American companies.

In a country built upon the backs of people who didn't belong here, clamor is being heard from certain political entities and members of our government (and sadly, our populace), that we need to close our borders to illegal immigrants AND ARM them more than they already are. Nevermind the fact that the only jobs these people are taking when they come over are the jobs that no one wants, the jobs that actually benefit American companies because these workers will take substandard wages, no-no, we are hell-bent on keeping these people out. Why? I see two reasons: one, a lot of people are too dumb and too lazy to understand and/or accept that illegal immigrants aren't taking anything from current citizens, unless you are the type that aspires to be the pseudo-servants of our society - and, people are just plain afraid of learning/dealing with new cultures aka racist, and two: arming the borders and increasing the manpower to enforce these laws means even MORE government spending on the military than we are already, which is almost impossible. Where does all that money go? To Certain AMERICAN companies.


On this topic, we are currently spending a ridiculous amount of money on a war that originally centered on one man, and mushroomed into a all-out attempt at forcing an American model on a people of whom a significant portion of want nothing to do with. Do I think that is smart? ON our part, NOOOO. On their part? No. I think that a free democracy is a great, great thing -- but try as we might, sometimes you have to let countries figure it out on their own. We aren't forcing China to become capitalist anytime soon, why are we trying so hard right now? Well, hmmm lets see. Who benefits from military spending out the asshole? Parents of American soldiers? No no no. Certain American Companies? YES YES YES.


So anyway, while we spend too much on a war we may never win, we allow certain aspects of our society to run wild with exploitation in certain sectors, and we focus on changing the entire attitude that our country was built on, know that we are keeping your internet safe from 10 dollar poker games, and people blowing a little steam and a few bucks here or there playing a card game that they will probably play with their friends on the weekend sometime now anyway. Seem a little ridiculous? Well, think of it in terms of this -- Can American companies profit off of internet poker? Its has been (for a while now) illegal for an American company to host such a site, therefore these sites (like Partypoker, Paradise Poker..etc) are profiting companies overseas or in the Caribbean. Hmmmm, not profiting certain American companies, law gets passed to regulate.

Makes you think?

Friday the 13th -- its a lot scarier than full moons and werewolves.

PS - A LONE REBEL FIGHTS ON (-; -- Everything is up to interpretation I guess..