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would still constitute regulation of a sort.  Those basic

principles already suffice to make regular many other

types of commerce, after all, and would probably suffice

for the rest were commerce more free.69   Politicians and

bureaucrats might not regard it as "regulation" to treat

Internet gambling as an ordinary business, but their pre-

ferred solution--detailed and particular rules enforced by

specialized administrative bodies--would arguably do more

to make Internet gambling subject to rent seeking and

industry capture than it would to make it regular.  At any

rate, such statist "irregulation" has little chance of

affecting Internet gambling.

The Right to Gamble, Online and Off

Friends of liberty argue convincingly that the right

to peaceably dispose of one's property includes the right

to gamble.  Although utterly sound in philosophical terms,

such an argument will almost certainly fail to affect pub-

lic policy.  Lawmakers typically care more about practices

than principles.  They will thus comfortably ban Internet

gambling on the assumption that history has demonstrated

the legitimacy of prohibiting, or at least heavily regu-

lating, games of chance.

Of course, history alone could never defeat the moral

argument for the right to gamble.  Somewhat surprisingly,

however, history does not even support lawmakers who would

infringe on that right.  Gambling in fact played a major

role in the personal and political lives of the Founders

of the United States.  The infamous Stamp Act, which trig-

gered the shot at Concord "heard round the world," infuri-

ated colonists by taxing playing cards and dice.70   Thomas

Jefferson, while drafting the Declaration of Independence,

relaxed by gambling on backgammon, cards, and bingo.71

Jefferson later declared the lottery preferable to conven-

tional means of raising government revenue on grounds that

it is "a tax laid on the willing only."72

Benjamin Franklin--using his era's most advanced tech-

nology--printed a good portion of the colonies' playing

cards.73   George Washington regularly bet on horses, gambled

in card games, and bought lottery tickets.74   Washington

also managed public lotteries, as did Franklin and John

Hancock.75   Lotteries even helped to pay for the first home

of the U.S. Congress,76 as well as for public buildings

throughout the new U.S. capital.77

Clearly, the Founders embraced gambling as part of

their inalienable right to "the Pursuit of Happiness."