The Republican Platform Committee adopted language Tuesday opposing Internet gambling — a provision that had been stripped from the initial draft as part of an effort to broaden the party’s appeal.
The full 112-member platform committee acted on pleas that Internet gambling victimizes poor people and children.
“Internet gambling represents the most invasive and addictive form of gambling in our history,” said Kendal Unrah of Colorado, who sponsored the amendment.
The draft platform had been cut in half from nearly 100 pages to streamline a conservative message.
Dropping the opposition to gambling represented a temporary triumph for the Poker Players Alliance, a group that has lobbied to legalize and regulate Internet gambling. The million-member group has spent $1.2 million during the first half of 2008 and members have contributed more than $350,000 to candidates this election year.
“This is a small victory in our determined effort to educate both sides of the aisle that there is a true constituency in America that values its Internet freedoms,” John Pappas, the alliance’s executive director, said of the draft platform.
The Republican platforms of 2000 and 2004 each included the following language: “Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support legislation prohibiting gambling over the Internet or in student athletics by student athletes who are participating in competitive sports.”
Poker players filed Internet comments urging Republicans to drop their platform opposition to virtual gambling.
“My point is simple. Is the Republican Party no longer the party of personal freedom and individual responsibility?” wrote Greg Raymer, a professional player who won the 2004 World Series of Poker. “Why has this party, that used to protect my rights, now become the party that wants to create a Nanny-state?”
The alliance contends that the Internet gambling industry estimated at $15 billion a year, with perhaps one third attributed to poker, should be regulated in the United States as it is in dozens other countries. American gamblers now play through off-shore Web sites, but could technically be prosecuted under federal law (PL 109-347).
But while prominent Democrats have sponsored legislation to regulate Internet gambling, Republicans have led opposition that kept the bills bottled up in subcommittee. Barring another change, Republican opposition will remain a plank in the party’s national platform.
The committee is meeting today and Wednesday write a document for the Republican National Convention to adopt on its first day, Sept. 1, in neighboring St. Paul.
