Tony George tees off of everything!

By Tony George www.sportsaudioshows.com  

Isn't our society getting alittle bit touchy and alittle over the top when it comes right down to it? As I watch the news, or read articles on-line, not only from sports gaming sites, but mainstream sports websites, as well as regular headline news, I am sickened by what our society has become. Politicians who are overzealous, money grubbing, egotistical idiots who have no idea about what their constituents really think about today's issues. They have murdered the online gaming industry. The Don Imus ordeal over the past week has me confused. A bad judgment on Imus's part, and one he needed reprimanded for no doubt. But yet a phrase used often by rappers in rap songs, except much worse, as I listen to some of my young sons music goes unnoticed or ignored. Shouldn't there be equal outrage over that? We are a two headed monster, all of us, bottom line. We all jump on the bandwagon that serves us best, that is the bottom line. The fallout from this behavior should be measured and considered, because in many cases, it is costly.

Are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson really reverends? If so what happened to the phrase "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone"? Where is their moral compass when it comes to people in their own community they so aggressively defend, the African American community, when it comes to rap and hip hop music and the videos from that genre? Talk about demeaning women, and stereotyping them! Didn't NBC Dateline or maybe it was 20/20, about 5 or 6 years ago have access to an undercover sting in Al Sharpton's younger days where he was putting together a cocaine deal and was filmed doing it? Am I wrong or does Jesse Jackson, the REVEREND Jesse Jackson, have a child born out of wedlock the past 2 or 3 years, and isn't he married to some else? Both a lot bigger crimes than Don Imus spouting off his big fat mouth with an effort at bad and tasteless humor. MSNBC and CBS radio fired him ONLY because sponsors who pay huge sums of money were dropping like flies, and threatened to pull out all together if he was not dropped. That is the sad part. Don Imus was not fired for what he said, he was fired because of money. Have no illusions about it. It is a sad but true fact.

There is so much hypocrisy in our society and government, it sickens me, especially when it hits home and in the pocketbook. Lets take sports gambling and gambling in general. In our society, 48 out of 50 states have some form legalized gambling. Take powerball type lotteries for example. Tax revenues from these lotteries are a cash cow for local, state and federal government. Those revenues build roads, enhance education budgets, and hold taxes down, especially with states who have casino's, like Missouri where I live. Politicians have no problem with casino's in their states, as the state governments love the revenues. HOWEVER, since local, state and federal authorities cannot control and tax offshore gaming revenues, they do away with it. This in turn has taken a once prosperous and regulated on-line industry, one of the few moneymakers on-line overall, and have all but shut it down. Talk about hypocrisy! If they could control and regulate it with big government control, on-line gaming would flourish and grow. Pay your damn taxes, 4 months of your annual salary, or we sick the IRS on you with high interest rates and penalties, but whatever you do, DO NOT lay 50 bucks on the Bears -3 or play poker on-line!

Have no doubts, I make money from sports gaming. I wager for a living and will continue to do so, and for many years made a good income by selling my opinions on-line at sports handicapping sites in an ethical and documented manner. I consider it my RIGHT as an American to choose this career path. However those days of doing the latter are numbered. Recently a site I was on for the past year shut down all handicapping " for pay" operations. The Phoenix Sports Ticket was a large gaming portal that had tons of great handicappers, articles and information. It was a quality site and ran ethically at all times by professionals who care about our marketplace. The result of restrictions and violations of civil liberties in the form of online anti-gambling legislation from our Senators and Congressmen left the owners no choice to shut down due to reduction of revenues and sportsbook sponsors dropping. Due to recent laws enacted by our conservative right winged and blindly led government, many of us old veterans in the industry are seeing revenues dwindle as the anti-Internet gambling legislation, and arrests by our Justice Department with numerous on-line business owners, basically shut down profitable, tax paying websites. Isn't the Attorney General, who leads the justice department, under investigation by congress for lying about his knowledge of the recent firing of US attorneys? This is same guy who had lead the fight to destroy our industry with such vigor and chest pounding.

YOU are being restricted by what YOU want to do. Does that not bother you as an American? Is this not that what our young men and women in the military are dying for in Iraq? If not for oil, which the government denies, it must be for establishing a democratic government that offers free speech and choices right? The ability to pick and choose their vices and opinions without repercussions from a government as it's citizens. The freedom of choice is under siege for Americans. The most powerful country on the planet is flexing their muscle against their own people, while trying to instill these ideals all over the globe, but losing site of the fact that these liberties are being violated back at home.

We are too sensitive as a society. I do not agree with what Don Imus said, but then again I rarely agree with what he has to say, and quite frankly who cares what he has to say. It is his right to express what he thinks, right or wrong. It cost him his job to do so. He apologized to those he singled out, there is nothing more he can do. But if you throw out the soup in the kitchen, then throw out all the cooks too. Most people could care less about the entire deal, but the media makes such a story anymore out of things like this, it is becoming an annoyance. Do I care who Anna Nicole's babies Daddy is? This has gone on for 2 months on a daily basis on national TV. I would rather see the body count in Iraq and focus on that, and nail down politicians on what they are going to do about it. I would rather have a national healthcare plan for all Americans versus sending out Justice Department officials to arrest the president of Netteller for sending funds to Poker sites or offshore sportsbooks. I would rather the Justice wing of the government concentrate on illegal drugs being shipped to this country, other than wondering if Joe Blow is playing poker online from the privacy of his home, and how they can arrest and ruin those "bad people" who are allowing him to do so.

The online gaming industry is shrinking and under siege. Barney Frank, a congressman, is leading a charge to overturn anti-gambling legislation, and the World Trade Organization is behind him. Look him up on google, e-mail him and voice your opinion and support. Make a stance for yourself and your right to choose. Offshore gaming companies, and those who derive monies from them, need to step up to the plate and use some of the millions they made over the past 10 years online to defend this industry. You can do your part. Of course Barney Frank has admitted he is gay, so if you are sensitive to that, I guess you can assassinate him for freedom of choice, like so many others are doing these days!