Jowell compares US gambling ban to prohibition

[Dr. Jack]

Jowell compares US gambling ban to prohibition

Hélène Mulholland
Friday October 27, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, attacked the US government yesterday over its crackdown on online gambling and warned that the policy could become a modern-day version of prohibition.

Ms Jowell spoke out against the new US anti-gambling laws signed earlier this month by George Bush, claiming that the legislation could fuel the kind of fraud and exploitation last seen during the prohibition era, when America banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol from 1920 to 1933.

Speaking ahead of the first-ever international summit on remote gambling being held at Royal Ascot next Tuesday, Ms Jowell told the Financial Times: "America should have learnt the lessons of prohibition."

There was a "real danger" that the US laws would create the "modern-day equivalent of speakeasies" - venues that illegally served alcohol - online, she said.

The prohibitionist Republican legislation, rushed through by Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, as part of the Safe Port Act, is designed to target banks and payment services that facilitate online wagering, and has prompted an exodus of companies from the US.

Ms Jowell argued that there were three ways to respond to the explosion in online gambling: "You can prohibit, like the US, do nothing, or regulate, like we have."

Ms Jowell wants to win international support for the government's approach of allowing online casino and poker sites, subject to legal control, rather than expelling them offshore and out of reach.

"I firmly believe we have chosen the path that will do the most to... keep out crime," she said.

Ms Jowell said she was determined to kickstart a debate on the global regulation of gambling ahead of next week's summit at which the US will be notably absent.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed that the FT's report of Ms Jowell's comments was "fair and accurate".