It's about protectionist measures to prevent American citizens spending their dollars with foreign companies.

...of things we'll have to fix after we get rid of the Rabidly Religious Right from the government here in the US of A.

"The suit names the inept and beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez as defendant, as well as the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve."

Gonzales quickly works up a defence:

for (type = bestpartialmatch to type = worstpartialmatch)

{

crime = tblCrimes.FindPartialMatch(select * from tblAllSecretData where Name='iMEGA')

if (prosecute(crime) = success) return 'victory is mine'

}

What do you think, the guy has blanket subpoenas in place for internet, flights, SWIFT, I guess banks etc. He's lied under oath to Congress, he'll just try to find something to pin on them, as leverage to make them go away. Since he doesn't need to go get a subpoena, the control mechanism protecting their right to challenge him has gone.

It's about collecting taxes. You don't think the winners report their winnings to the IRS.

"The phrase "fundamental rights" is a legal term of art referring to certain basic civil liberties that merit strict legal scrutiny under the American Constitution, and although poker is a venerable American tradition - and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is an avid poker player - it seems doubtful that the Supreme Court will elevate online gambling to a level of constitutional protection generally reserved for racial discrimination or political speech."

We're talking about land of free, where the rights do not come from the state but from the people. We're not talking about European countries where subjects expect to have only those rights given to them by the government.

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

So, yes, they do have a merit and we should wish them well in their fight for our fundamental right to lead our lives as we find fit, be it online poker or living with a person of a same sex.

"It's about collecting taxes. You don't think the winners report their winnings to the IRS"...

You guys in the USA must have one hell of a population base whose means of support is professional gambling. It wasn't until I had to fill out an IRS form (worked in the States for 6 months) that I saw a "gambling winnings/losses" section in a Tax form.

Can anyone explain WHY it was placed in there in the first place? Wouldn't it be simpler NOT to allow gambling as a tax loss?

I'm sure that the payments received from land based casinos by the Bill Frist (almost $50,000!) who attached the bill to the ports act had nothing to do with this action to put a stop to competition to Bricks and Mortar casinos! Of course horse racing had been suffering as well in the US so I'm sure that the $10,000 that Bob Goodlatte received from the National Thoroughbred Association had nothing to do with a carve out for horse racing! Senator Frist says that the bill is to help stop gambling addiction but he received contributions from tobacco and alcohol companies of over $50,000 and Senator Goodlatte received nearly $70,000 from the similar companies in the same industires - are these substances not addictive!

I'm paraphrasing here so why not check this link out for a short video from APCW: http://www.apcw.org/goodlatte-and-frist