The Republican Party of the United States obviously has no idea which direction it wants to take when it comes to online gambling in any form.  Previously they decided to opt to give citizens of the United States the freedom of choice and allow them to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to gamble online.  August 27, 2008 they did a 180 and reinstituted a ban on online gambling back into the platform, condemning the activity and calling of total abolishment of the activity.

Many Republican constituents wrote to their senators and congressmen about the ban as well as to the main party platform website.  These citizens felt that their personal freedom to be violated by the online gaming ban, and let the government know that many ‘true’ Republicans valued their personal freedom.  The grass-roots movement of letters, phone calls, e-mails, and other correspondence was organized by the Poker Players Alliance.  There was such an overwhelming reaction to the Poker Players Alliance request that the Republican Party decided to remove the paragraph from its campaign platform.

Unfortunately for the state on online gambling and freedoms granted to American citizens under the First Amendment, the Republican Party caved under the pressure of social conservative groups.  These groups obviously wield some serious powers even though their numbers are considerably fewer than those that will turn out to vote in November.  The Republican Party ignored the voters and reinstated the paragraph they had removed.

The controversial paragraph talks about the social problems that are attributed to gambling, including how it goes against the faith of many different religions.  The sad part about such broad, sweeping statements is that there is no evidence that online gambling is anymore dangerous than gambling at a live casino.  The conjecture is all unproved and unfounded.

What does this say about the Republican Party?  Nothing nice at this point.  There are  plenty of people within the party that have admitted that the organization and control of the party has been taken over by a small group of ‘religious radicals’ that are attempting to impose their beliefs on every one else.  This isn’t new in the history of the world and true Republicans are not happy with the wishy-washy statement the removal and subsequent return of the paragraph is giving everyone.  The Republican Party has basically told the citizens of the United States that their personal freedoms don’t mean squat compared to the special interest groups.

They may discover when election time comes that the American citizens think otherwise.