The Justice Department here in Minnesota has put online gamblers “on notice.” They are coming.

What is the bottomline: The Justice Department is using a law from 1961. (I was born in 1961) that they claim says gambling online is illegal.

I’m sorry I don’t remember having access to the Internet in High School.

They are telling Minnesota Online Gamblers that the act of gambling online is illegal.

They are INSTRUCTING ISP’s to BLOCK access by all Minnesota based computers to about 200 gambling websites.

They haven’t done their homework. There are thousands.

Now, Minnesota is where I reside and have the pleasure of paying taxes so that The Justice Department can catch criminals from doing things to hurt people.

But the Department says they have no idea how much gambling online is actually happening.

Really.
Do they know how many murders took place in Minnesota last year?
Do they know how many women were raped?
How about a good guess at how much white collar crime?

So they have data about all real crimes but they have no idea about imaginary crimes.

Fascinating.

Must be hurting a lot of people.

I find things like this interesting because I be on the Super Bowl this year. There is no law in the United States that makes gambling online illegal. In fact Barney Frank has been working on making it legal. Maybe he enjoys poker too, I don’t know. He’s right on this one.

Let’s look at a few quick arguments against “gambling” both online and in general.

1) Gambling is unregulated…………….(Not my fault.)
2) Gambling is sinful………………..(For some religions)
3) Gambling includes games of chance where the player loses more often more than they win.
——–Life Insurance. A HUGE gamble
——–Insurance and warranties of ALL kinds. A MONSTER gamble.
——–Stocks, futures and options…all done on line where the probability is that the gambler will lose…..But this is “different” because the government owns banks and companies that profit from gambling in stocks, futures and options.

And then one would have to determine just what gambling online is. “Any time you put money at risk and can lose it,” perhaps?

So all the civilization games that the kids, like my 11 year old play that cost money, money constantly invested into the online civilizations where by both skill and chance the kids (and adults) can actually win or lose PLENTY of money. That would not be gambling because?????

The biggest gambles people take (the highest probability of loss putting up real money for a chance to win money) are life insurance, futures, options, warranties….yeah…. nothing in the poker/casino market comes close. Nothing.

Yet I can go to Ameritrade right now and pop $1000 on whether gold will go up today, or not and cash out or lose it all in 30 seconds, or 3 hours.

The very notion that a government agency has the audacity to attempt to tell Internet Providers not to allow Minnesota residents they can’t access whatever they consider gambling sites to be, rings of a far greater crime. Censorship. Sounds like China to me. Not that that matters. After all, the guys at the Justice Department are just “doing there job.”

So be it. Perhaps they would be willing to list just what forms of gambling online are illegal so one could have an understanding.

Can I gamble on a stock? An option? Can I play the futures market. I defy ANYONE in the Justice Department to explain to me the difference between betting on the futures market or buying/selling options and say blackjack or poker.

I can’t WAIT to hear not a list of criminal activities like “craps” or “pai gow poker” but the RATIONALE of WHY that is gambling vs. other forms of gambling that actually destroy people’s lives and retirements.

The argument I hear is that there is “an underlying security” in stocks, futures, etc. etc.

Cool. So the $100 TRILLION of derivatives are NOT gambling? The chips they play with that are NOT US Currency are not illegal?

Perhaps the Justice Department would explain THAT….to anyone.

…oh you could become “addicted” to “gambling.”

Yes you can.

I know plenty of people who trade stocks, buy stocks, futures and options in the hopse of winning more money. Most lose. It’s the nature of gambling. Plenty become addicted because of the rush involved in winning.

There is of course no difference in the feelings. The reward centers in the brains don’t cease working because a game is in the futures market instead of the stock market.

Here’s a question:

How much did Minnesota gamblers lose last year. I’m going to say $50 million as a guess.

How much did Minnesota residents lose playing the markets in a way that it has utterly destroyed their futures?

I’m going to say $10 billion.

I would be very happy to use this space to interview any employee of the Minnesota Department of Justice explaining just WHAT they believe gambling is and what it is not and create a definition where someone would know whether they were gambling or doing something illegal.

After all, we get the idea that we can’t walk outside and shoot our neighbor. That is a fundamental principle. Simple ways to understand.

So what would the RULE be for gambling? How could a citizen KNOW?

If someone buys a warranty on a computer at Best Buy the return on that gamble is about 10%. If you gamble on a hand of blackjack your return on the gamble is about 48%. If you buy futures you could argue it’s 50/50 but give me 10 minutes and I’ll show you that is not correct…at all.

People can watch TV online, they can do anything oline but I can’t play poker? Because…………………………………………someone “said so?”
What was the criteria?
What is the principle?
How do you draw conclusions from the principle?

Are citizens really going to stand for having the DoJ enter their home because they THINK someone is playing “cards” online?

WOW.

That is Russia 1975. China 2009….Wait, no it’s not. It’s far worse than anything I’ve ever heard.

To call something criminal when no one is harmed is *wrong.*

And if the are going to call it games of chance, then please tell me that they will contact the government and tell them that they can’t let “investors” play the markets, or futures markets…. oh wait…that won’t happen…because,

there is no rational principle involved.

Only a game to take government away from what it should be doing.

PROTECTING AND SERVING her citizens.

Not trying to determine the entertainment in someone’s home.

See how big this is?

DoJ readers: post a comment here on this blog, I’ll instantly post it so residents can gain understanding immediately. Particularly me because I don’t do illegal stuff. But by censorship without cause of any kind, the government commits a huge crime. We become….. no longer a free society.