Web gambling: Tax us

A time tested means of vices gaining public acceptance is taxation. For instance, the Nevada brothel industry has been trying to get itself taxed for years on grounds that it will lend legitimacy to the “industry.”

Now U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has introduced legislation calling for taxation of internet gambling to pay for health care, effectively ending legal prohibitions. The internet gambling lobby glommed right onto the idea, volunteering to pay, “finally putting to an end a failed prohibition on Internet gambling that leaves Americans unprotected and unlicensed offshore operators as the only beneficiary in a thriving marketplace.” That was Michael Waxman of the Internet Gambling Initiative.