Articles from the Selected Date

By Mike Godsey

Online gamblers and sports betting firms are scurrying to find ways to continue investing on the betting odds in lieu of recent controversial US Congress legislation. Last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist gave a classic illustration in pork barrel legislation when, on the last bill on the last day of Congress, Frist attached the so-called Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to a popular and totally unrelated port authority bill.

It appears many online sports betting aficionados are opening bank and credit card accounts outside the United States. Jay Bailey, director of development for the National Right to Online Gaming, which represents 20,000 online gamblers, said Internet networking technology is being developed in countries outside the United States.  Industry insiders say simple adjustment can skirt what Cy McCormick of MasterLockLine.com calls “Prohibition of the 21^st Century”.

Brian Gould of BetOnSports360.com believes American sports bettors will simply resume using local “outlaw” bookmakers. However he fears that domestic terrorist cells see the crackdown on legitimate online betting firms as a gift horse to open local bookmaking operations since there will be no paper trail. “Frist is the biggest ally terrorist financiers could possibly have in Congress”.

By Mike Godsey

Online sportsbooks and casinos may look to the World Trade Organization for relief from the financial devastation caused by the US government’s crackdown on online gambling. Essentially Congress passed pork barrel legislation that would make it a crime to use credit cards or online payments for Internet betting.

This ruling had a crippling effect on gambling companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Gambling is legal in the United Kingdom.  Monday, shares of Party Gaming stock fell 58 percent or about $3.8 billion. 888 Holdings had its shares fall 26 percent the same day.

Online betting operations have found solace in a recent ruling by the WTO.  In a case involving Antigua versus the United States, the WTO did rule the bizarre exceptions made for online horse racing operations and state lottery systems are inconsistent with global trade rules.

According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, more than half of the estimated $12 billion in online gambling revenue comes from the United States.

Joe Duffy (JoeDuffy.net)

Many years ago I was a two-time executive board member of the North Fulton (GA) Young Republicans.  I’m no longer young.  As I got older, I preferred to describe my political beliefs aligned more with conservative ideology than any political party.

As I transitioned into a middle aged Republican, my eyes were opened to the fact that both parties are guilty of putting partisan needs ahead of the country’s well being.

I preferred to align myself with ideals. When my choice lost, rather than proving I was smarter than those who voted for the winning candidate, I judged the elected official on performance and not which letter is in parenthesis after his or her name. Conversely, when my chad hung for the right person, blind defense of such elected official could not enter the equation.

So there you have my leanings on the table, but I honestly believe I’ve always had a political slant, yet never a bias.

I generally have been pretty accurate predicting the outcome of elections, my rooting interests never shading me.

Most observers were shocked at the last major election. The Republican Party became the first since Franklin Roosevelt to win both the White House and gain seats in both houses while already holding a majority.

Mind you, I can’t say I have the political handicapping skills to match my sports prognostication abilities, but I foresaw the Democrats losing the last elections much more so than the Republicans “winning”.

Their Presidential frontrunner Howard Dean and lead attack dog Tom Daschle rallied the far left but alienated the center—the undecided—with melodramatic, Chicken Little, sky-is-falling rhetoric.

Dean plummeted quickly in his party’s own primaries and Daschle, once unbeatable is now a private citizen thanks to a contingency that tired of their refusal to keep the debate honest. George Soros, Hollywood and Air America cheered the venom and histrionics, while the undecided gave more power to an unpopular majority party.

Republicans clearly, two years later, are hell bent on returning the favor. The right wing counterparts to MoveOn.org, Al Franken and the incorrigibles have commandeered the party.  Republican insurgents such as Jerry Falwell, Anne Coulter, and Michael Savage may feel invigorated by their party’s Gambling Prohibition. But every survey I have ever seen says that rank and file Americans believe in the right to bet five bucks on how many points will be scored on the Monday Night Football game.

This political handicapper believes—and with a conservative slant at that—the Republican Party’s insistence on kowtowing the right-wing fringe is a gamble that will fail miserably.

Joe Duffy is CEO of OffshoreInsiders.com your source for free sports picks from the nation’s top handicappers as well as exclusive sports betting information.