iMEGA: Really a Friend to the Internet and Online Gambling?

Over the past few weeks, Gambling911.com has written a number of "feel good" pieces about iMEGA, the organization seeking an injunction against the US government related to the UIGEA and its stance related to online gambling. 

In the interest of being fair and balanced, something that Gambling911.com always strives for, not everyone is so gung ho about iMEGA.  Special contributor to Gambling911.com, Jennifer Reynolds, in fact makes online gambling naysayer, Marc Lesnick, at times look like a hopeless optimist.

Reynolds, an attorney, is suspect of iMEGA's intentions.  Her views are strictly her own and not necessarily those of Gambling911.com but this site allows for an open forum.  We've even encouraged folks from the religious right to submit positive articles on Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona.  That didn't get very far though.

Of primary concern to Ms. Reynolds, iMEGA's apparent focus on "government regulation". 

"Any increase in the power of the government decreases the options and freedom of the individual," Reynolds insists. 

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On first blush, The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) seems laudible, even heroic, in their efforts to seek a judgment against the United States from enforcing the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA).  However, a closer examination of their organization and its goals reveals a much less savory truth. Since they are seeking donations, members of the public should visit their website http://www.imega.org/index.php  to see what their version of working for the "public” actually entails.

Sadly, their website is so full of doublespeak and contradictory goals that it soon becomes unclear what is their main agenda. The worthy goal of the lawsuit (to strike down a terrible law) seems to contradict everything iMEGA favors in regards to the future of the Internet. Hint: they support massive government interference in the Internet. Does this sound like the kind of organization that wants to repeal the UIGEA?. At least the complaint itself does not include any of the vile Internet restrictions that their group seeks.

iMEGA claims they are an "association dedicated to the continued growth and innovation of the Internet." Next they ask you to "Donate Today, support our commitment to a free and open Internet." Contrarily, they also state "Two major benefits come immediately from U.S. recognition and regulation of Internet gaming: transparency and tax revenues." It is this statement (and all it necessarily implies) that belies all their other stated goals. Advocating government control over the Internet in this manner is misguided (if not outright sinister) and will lead to the restriction the Internet, not freedom.

The power to regulate is the power to control and obliterate. Imagine a regulation that stated only persons with incomes over $100,000 may gamble online. Such a regulation would effectively end Internet gaming. Now of course, no such regulation would (probably) be enacted, that was just an exaggerated example. The point is that ANY regulation will take away some of your freedom and close off the Internet to some. That is the problem with regulations: you have one idea in your head about how they should be used and so you think they will be fine, unfortunately, other people with a lot more money and power than you have other ideas how regulations should be used (to keep competition out, to increase their own market share, etc.). Regulations will NOT keep the Internet “free and open” as IMEGA claims to seek. Any increase in the power of the government decreases the options and freedom of the individual.

Regulations hamper both industry and consumers, they do not help the market grow. Innovation is stifled by regulation. Look at the FDA and the 7 or more year wait to get life-saving medicines on the market. The typical argument offered by these types is "we need to protect you" and "with regulation we will make sure you are safe." Tell that to those who die waiting for the FDA to permit them to try to save their lives with drugs already proven effective in Europe and elsewhere. Tell people who invested in a very heavily regulated stock called Enron in a very heavily regulated industry that the government will save them; no amount of regulations protected those investors. Government regulations crowd out genuine consumer protection while offering only platitudes and false promises. Consumers don’t need that kind of “protection”. Government cheerleaders offer up the same old arguments we’ve come to expect from gangsters: "Pay up and we won't break your legs, see you're safer already; if we do happen to break your legs we will sell you crutches at a discount - we are your friend; gee, just think how much worse you’d be off if we hadn’t been here?”

And what about this quest for transparency? iMEGA also claims that one of their issues is to have privacy on the Internet. But privacy for whom? Since the individual would have to give up their social security number and have their ISPs watch every move in order to determine all the wonderful tax “revenue” that is demanded, iMEGA can not possibly mean privacy for the individual. Transparency really means that the all your actions on the Internet are transparent to the government, in other words, everything you do will be watched. The only benefit transparency could have is that once the regulations on the banks are removed (the goal of the UIGEA lawsuit), the banks will not be watched so closely, so perhaps someone gets privacy out of this deal… but it certainly won’t be you, the individual.

iMEGA’s stated goals are terribly short-sighted. In order to implement some of the "benefits" of their goals the entire Internet will have to be watched. While this lawsuit may succeed in ending some relatively weak and hard to enforce regulations right now, (the UIGEA) the stated aim of this organization is to seek stricter regulations in the near future. Talk about winning a battle but losing a war. ISPs will have to keep track of all activity and report back to the U.S. Government if taxation is to be enforced. So much for “growth and innovation.” So much for “free and open.” The most important aspect of the Internet is that it is already free and open to people of all walks of life in many different countries. Would you want to "surf the web" in a country that watches and keeps track of your every move? Would you be able to? Who will pay for all this monitoring? The ISPs? The banks and gaming sites? You? The smart money is on “You.”

While it sounds politically correct to call for the benefits of taxation as a bargaining tool, rarely does the individual feel those "benefits." Regulations and calls for “transparency” will mean the end of autonomy and privacy and mark the beginning of the end of one of the last bastions of free speech and free trade and well… freedom itself. Once the U.S. Government gets its foot in the Internet door via gaming regulation, (an area that many not care so much about, or will notice), it will have opened the door to regulating and watching what you purchase online, what you say in a blog or a chat room, what kind of groups you belong to, who you associate with, what you think, etc. Once you let the government control anything, you will have little protection against them controlling everything. What if all websites eventually need licenses and will be forced to pay fees to the government? iMEGA's stated goals open the door for this and all manner of government abuse.

We don't need a "cooperative, constructive relationship with the government" to have rapid growth and innovation of the Internet. We need freedom from government interference to have rapid growth and innovation of the Internet. So far, due to the Internet's decentralized and international nature, that is mainly what we have. But this could change. Beware of any group that asks you to get into bed with the devil. You won't like the consequences.

If iMEGA truly has a commitment to have a free and open Internet they will remove all references to seeking tax revenues and “transparency” for the Internet from their website immediately. They will remove any call for regulations. They will remove doublespeak such as they "will work through the legislative and legal processes on the behalf of our members, to ensure that the Internet remains an open and free medium, while seeking common ground and sensible solutions to challenges." Once again, the path to Internet openness is freedom from all government interference. We, the people, do not share common ground and solutions with the government. We seek lack of interference, they seek interference. Nothing in common there. Any compromise means we the people lose some ground and they the government (and their corporate masters) win.

It would be nice if iMEGA wins this lawsuit, for the UIGEA is a truly abominable piece of tyrannical legislation. It would be even nicer if iMEGA’s involvement in political activism ends there.

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Jennifer Reynolds, Special Contributor to Gambling911.com

Originally published June 29, 2007 4:30 am ET