This blog is about pro Football gambling

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There is already significant movement in Congress to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. The act is an ill-conceived, poorly thought out restriction on our personal freedoms that was very sneakily attached to a ‘must pass’ port security bill after midnight on the final night of the previous congressional session.

The House Financial Services Committee held hearings on the issue last week. Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank introduced the ‘Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act’ (HR 2046), which would essentially repeal the draconian UIGEA. Nevada Rep Shelley Berkley introduced the ‘Internet Gambling Study Act’ (HR 2140), which would provide some rational thought and study on the issue, setting the table for legalization and regulation in the not-too-distant future.

Both bills are a positive sign; a step in the right direction even if they don’t pass in this congressional session. Remember, at this point it’s fairly clear that the UIGEA was a political gambit from a desperate politician (former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist), trying to court conservative votes for his failed presidential bid. Radley Balko, in Reason magazine (10/26/06): “The main motivation for the bill was simply the moral aversion to gambling held by it’s chief sponsors – Goodlatte, Kyl and Leach – and a desire to impose that moral rectitude on the rest of the country.”

In my series of articles on the history of gambling, one thing is perfectly clear – people of all races, classes, cultures and creeds have been gambling amongst themselves for as long as people have existed. Risk taking and calculating risk/reward ratios are, quite simply, a part of who we are as human beings.

There is ample evidence that politicians themselves have been avid gamblers, throughout the course of world history and American history. I’ve written about George Washington’s penchant for cards; how the state of Pennsylvania exists because of a gambling debt from the King of England to William Penn’s father; how Thomas Jefferson relaxed during the weeks that he was writing the Declaration of Independence by gambling every evening; and how leaders of virtually every ancient civilization engaged in sometimes startling (by modern standards) gaming activity.

Those few moralistic politicians who rammed this anti-gaming bill down the collective throats of an estimated 70 million steady US gamblers should take a look at their peers in American history to understand exactly how widespread gambling is in our political history.

Senator Henry Clay from Kentucky was a dominant figure in American politics throughout the first half of the 1800’s, known as the ‘Great Compromiser’ for his ability to bring widely diverging political views together. As a young state legislator, Clay worked to keep card playing legal in Kentucky. As his stature rose, so did his penchant for gambling, winning and losing as much as $60,000 in a single session – an absolutely enormous figure for the mid-1800’s.

Clay certainly wasn’t the only statesman of his era to love the thrill of gaming. The legendary Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster was a consistent player in Clay’s card games. But there is far more documentation regarding the gambling activities of our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, as Webster sought to keep his gaming out of the public eye.

‘Old Hickory’ Jackson was a man of the people, the first president from the emerging American frontier, where gambling flourished in the 1800’s. Jackson bet on anything and everything, but loved the thrill of sports betting the most, placing his money on the two most prevalent sporting activities of the time – cock fighting and horse racing.

By 1825, gambling houses lined Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, just north of the White House. Congressmen and Senators were many of the best customers of these dozen early casinos. At times, Congress lacked a quorum to conduct business because so many members were out gambling! Even while in session, many in Congress wagered heavily on election results amongst one another.

While serving as a Senator in 1826, future president Martin Van Buren reportedly wagered $10,000 and the clothes he was wearing on a ‘sure thing’.

John Henry Adams was embroiled in one of our nation’s earliest gambling scandals, clearly illustrating the hypocrisy of politicians that were saying one thing in public, but doing another thing entirely in private. Adams spent public money on a billiards table, balls and cues for the White House, but his critics denounced the move, claiming that Adams was spending tax dollars on his own gambling activities. He was not re-elected for a second term.

In his book ‘Poker Stories, written in 1896, author JFB Lillard claimed that every president from Van Buren onwards, with the lone exception of Rutherford B Hayes, was a known poker player. Certainly, there is documented evidence that presidents James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant gambled on cards regularly throughout their respective tenures in the White House.

Members of Congress were equally attracted to games that combined skill and chance. The gambling culture in Washington D.C. throughout the 1800’s was second only to what was happening on the Western Frontier, a veritable hotbed of gaming activity. In fact, one of the first poker rule books (Draw Rules for Playing Poker) was written by US Rep Robert Schenck in 1880. Clearly, there’s been a lot more gambling in Washington than the US government’s moralistic regulators would have you believing.

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This blog is about pro Football gambling

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