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Old 2009-02-02, 08:47 PM   #4
Pagan
Perverted Empress
 
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Finland
Posts: 5,114
I live in a state (Texas) where a lot of things are illegal. We don't have the "Porn" shops that a lot of large cities do. You can't buy alcohol everywhere, and don't look for it on a Sunday morning at all. Do I miss them? Nope. I can buy my adult entertainment over the net, and I don't drink much. Each state, and most counties have their local laws which do need to be respected. As voters, we do have that privilege. It's within our borders, and we do have the right to restrict it.

At the same time, we need to realize that no one entity controls the Internet. Nothing the US tries to enforce is going to happen on a global basis. Voluntary, yes.. global no. The wrongful seizure of domain names should be corrected. Will seizure of the names discourage gambling? No. Those that wish to put up the sites will come up with other names. That is their right, and like it or not, they do have a right to run a business as long as it is legal in the jurisdiction of the owners. Being a Texan, living in a dry county, it would be wrong for me to own a casino - it would not be legal if it was a brick-and-mortar establishment. Now, if I lived in Las Vegas, different story.

However, some action needs to be taken to do an age verification. As we saw with the early age checks, most are easily defeated, and 16 year olds can use a debit card with a MasterCard/Visa logo just the same as a credit card. Like many of us do, these sites should have to register with the filtering agencies so that responsible parents can act accordingly. Gambling, just like porn, can be an addiction.
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