Jon Kyl Internet Gambling Bill Irks Everyone But Fantasy Baseball Players

Arizona's Republican Senator Jon Kyl ensured his measure to ban internet gambling got through this past October by attaching it to an unrelated port security bill.  He also ensured that strong political allies would not be affected by the bill - the horse racing lobbyists and fantasy sports groups (beloved by major sports leagues) were exempt.

Ultimately the bill only clarified that banking institutions were prohibited from engaging in or allowing any type of transactions for the purposes of betting online.  The banks of course have no way of monitoring such transactions.

Enter Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Franks, who this past fall declared Kyl's Act as one of the "stupidest laws ever passed".  He's probably right.  Then again, Jon Kyl is looking to pass legislation that would criminalize disclosure and publication of anything the government deems secret relating to investigating in the same week that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is being scrutinized for agents alleged "misuse" of the Patriot Act.  This latest piece of legislation proposed by Mr. Kyl may even be more ill-founded than his internet gambling measure with all those interesting carve outs.

And did we mention that Jon Kyl wants to build a wall around his state (Think China) to keep Mexicans out?

Wouldn't it be funny if say - Sportsbook.com - were to come forward with information that a relative of Jon Kyl's was actually one of their customers?  Fortunately, if this scenario were to exist - and we are not saying that it does - Sportsbook.com prides itself on secrecy the same way that Jon Kyl does.  

The good news came on Wednesday with confirmation that Barney Frank is working on legislation to repeal Jon Kyl's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.  Another of Kyl's constituents and anti-online gambling zealots, Jim Leach, the Republican Senator out of Iowa, was no re-elected following the collective effort of the online poker community.  Millions of Iowa households were put on alert regarding Leach's attachment of such a measure to the port security bill.  Leach did not know what hit him since he held a comfortable lead heading into Election Day (see Des Moines Register article here)

Gambling911.com has discovered one group (besides the religious extremists) who are willing to embrace Mr. Kyl just in time for the new baseball season. 

Alfred Cox, who has participated in Fantasy Baseball leagues for the past six years, expressed thanks to Jon Kyl for ensuring the legality of something that was never really considered illegal in the first place.

"We need politicians in office who look out for our special interests and I am thankful for Jon Kyl thinking of us and including us in his state lottery carve outs," said Cox, who is a registered Democrat and typically does not vote Republican.

The New York Sun carried an insightful op-ed piece this week which examines why American sports bodies like Major League Baseball have implacably opposed online gambling in the USA.....as long as there's a carve-out in the legislation for fantasy sports.

The article explains that the MLB spent a good part of last year trying to corner the fantasy baseball market, unsuccessfully arguing in court that player names and statistics are not public events, and raising the licensing fees for officially endorsed fantasy baseball games such as those run by ESPN well into the millions of dollars.

This, the article claims was part of a basic strategy to centralise the huge fantasy market around MLB's Web site, thus giving baseball a finger in every fantasy pie.

Barney Franks tired of government and politicians like Jon Kyl meddling in other people's lives - including the lives of those living outside the US

Though that strategy was dealt a blow by the August decision that MLB could not stop small companies from running fantasy games using baseball statistics, fantasy games remain a large and growing revenue stream for MLB, with seven officially licensed fantasy games, with each licensee paying a reported $2.5 million - an extremely valuable platform for the promotion of the sport.

The piece goes on to sharply criticise Senator Jon Kyl, long the nemesis of the online gambling industry with his repeated attempts to introduce banning laws: "Happily for baseball, Mr. Kyl's ban on online gambling includes a carve-out for fantasy sports," the article explains. "Five card stud might be crack, but apparently the crystal meth that is fantasy baseball is fine with the good senator, who obligingly cleared out a whole gang of rival dealers so that MLB and the other major team sports could sling their product on the corner.

"Head over to MLB.com and you'll be pointed to clean destinations where you can wager on baseball through fantasy sports leagues - a good, legal way to spend some of that cash you otherwise would have burned in your virtual crackpipe."

The author then claims that according to records accessed through the Center for Responsive Politics, Kyl raked in $41 398 from MLB executives and the game's political action committee last year.

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com

Originally published March 14, 2007 7:31 pm ET