Anti-poker crusade is just ridiculous

I am not really that into online poker; I lack the patience to be truly great at poker.

However, I have several friends that swear by it, and we were all quite annoyed when Congress decided to attach a ban on transfers to online gambling companies in a rider to a port security bill last year. That was annoying government paternalism about something that is really none of their business. (Furthermore, the only reason online gambling was banned was because they don't have as good lobbyists as the brick-and-mortar gambling companies. Inadequately organized lobbyists shouldn't be a reason to ban something.)

But this is just ridiculous. Reason reports on arrests of people who attempt to flout the ban:

Although Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre are charged with money laundering, there was nothing sneaky about their "conspiracy." In 1999 the two Canadians co-founded Neteller, an online payment processing company, now based in the Isle of Man, that openly specialized in serving online gamblers.

The FBI's investigation of Lawrence and Lefebvre, who were arrested last month and face a preliminary hearing in New York next week, consisted mainly of reading their public statements and using Neteller to bet on a couple of football games -- a vice that in this country has to rank up there with eating a second slice of Mom's apple pie while listening to The Star-Spangled Banner. Yes, the feds really blew the lid off this publicly traded company that never made a secret of who its customers were or what it did for them.

The impressive thing about the case, part of the Justice Department's legally shaky crusade against online gambling, is not the evidence but the government's sinister spin on it. The feds pretend they're pursuing criminals while prosecuting honest businessmen for providing services Americans want.

The money laundering charges against Lawrence and Lefebvre -- which carry prison sentences of up to 20 years, 10 times the maximum penalty for the offense they supposedly facilitated -- are based on the government's claim that Neteller transferred money into and out of the United States "with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity." According to Michael Garcia, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the "unlawful activity" was taking online bets from Americans, which he describes as "a colossal criminal enterprise masquerading as legitimate business." (Emphasis mine.)

Come on. They attempted to flout the law on a technicality -- they were not hosting online gambling themselves rather they were transferring money to those who do, but that is hardly racketeering. And more than that it is hardly a criminal conspiracy.

Not to mention the fact that it is unclear whether the law itself bans these type of transfers (read the article). Not to mention that the WTO is probably going to render the issue moot by finding the ban in violation of free trade regulations.

Ridiculous.