Most of us vote in elections of some sort or another for political candidates that will influence future legislation. When you go to the polls, how does your opinion of a candidates view on gambling effect the way you vote?
Share with us your views on different candidates, and how it has effected the way you've voted over the years.
Personally, I'm a strong supporter of Barney Frank, who is my local congressman, and one of the strongest opponents of the UIGEA around. I wrote to him nearly a decade ago to let him know I supported the right of US citizens to gamble online and opposed legislation being considered at that time to prohibit online gambling. This is what Barney wrote back to me on the 10th of July of 2000:
Quote:
Dear Mr. Corfman:
I agree with you completely in opposing the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. I would have hoped that the American experience with alcohol in the '20s and '30s would make my colleagues far more skeptical of new forms of prohibition than they have been. I agree with you that this legislation violates the principle of leaving the Internet unregulated, and violates as well the privacy of millions of Americans. While I do not myself gamble, I think it is a choice that adults should be able to make for themselves, and I do not support restrictions of this sort, especially when it involves a very intrusive form of regulation of the Internet. When this bill came up in Committee, I argued and spoke against it, and I will continue to oppose it.
Barney Frank
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I proudly display that letter in our office, and you can be sure his position is in the forefront of my mind every time I vote for him. I make sure I vote just so I can cast my vote for him.
And, in the case of George Bush, you can bet one (of many) reasons I would vote against him if he were up for election again was his signature on the UIGEA.
Michael