Comment Text:
I don’t care if people vote on elections at the club table in their local pub. They probably do it now and there is no way to stop them, but allowing gamblers to organize under a national protective umbrella is very dangerous. Since most people vote their economic interests, it gives individuals and corporations a larger organizational forum to advertise and support candidates who will protect their narrow interests at the expense of a more generalized well-being:
• keeping the IRS small and underfunded so that it only has the resources to audit small tax filers on a regular basis
• keeping federal agencies underfunded and hobbled so repetitive industrial polluters get only a slap on the wrist
• the election of judges at all levels who are receptive to the narrow interests of those who voted them into office
These are existing problems, as is the lack of civics education in the schools, the amount of disinformation that swirls around candidates running for office, and the certainty that everyone seems to have at this moment that, since their view is the correct one, it justifies any action they may take to get their candidates into office. Allowing large-scale gambling will simply add incentive, organization, and a heightened personal desire to “win their bet” to existing efforts to push an election in one direction or another.
