$50 says you’ll agree

by Rashad Daoudi
For The Post

Sometime during the next year, Congress will try to pass a bill banning all Internet gambling sites.

Apparently the government feels that if it can’t make money on these overseas bookies, then it will decide for the people whether or not they should be able to gamble.

What kind of hypocrisy is the government spreading when it thrives on state-sponsored lotteries, but decides gambling, without supplying the state with money, is a sin and has no place in American households?

So I guess it’s okay to allow citizens to have a one in 1,250,107,840 chance to win the Super Lotto (36*35*34*33*32*31), but not allow them the right to choose to bet on a certain team that they believe might win on any given night. Sorry, but I’d rather take my chances with Duke's basketball team covering the spread.

With the Super Bowl right around the corner, Internet gambling is likely to reach its highest popularity. And the Super Bowl, like all other sporting events, needs a spread.

In 1997, the Green Bay Packers were 13 1/2-point favorites against the New England Patriots. When Green Bay scored late in the game to go up 33-21, do you think people across the country watched the ensuing two-point conversion because they love the game? No, all those television sets stayed on NBC to see if the Packers would get the conversion to cover the spread. I know that is why I was watching.

Sports gambling is like the stock market. Betting on a game is no different than buying stock in Microsoft, which one can do on many Internet sites.

If you bet $1,000 on the St. Louis Rams, and they go up 10-0 in the first quarter, your stock just went up to $1,250. If the Rams are down 20-13 at halftime, your stock is worth $500 bucks. And when Kurt Warner throws a touchdown to Issac Bruce in the final seconds to win the game and cover the spread, you've won $1,000.

It's no different than the feeling LTV Steel investors had when they saw Chase Manhattan Bank bail out the company with a $200 billion loan the night before the firm was going to file for bankruptcy.

I know gambling online isn't the wisest thing to do, and I know that with a click of the mouse, money for groceries and books is going off to some guy surfing in Antigua. That’s my choice to make, however, and no government official can deny my right to Internet freedom.

People are going to gamble if they want to gamble, so better they do it in the comfort of their own homes than by calling a bookie who might break their thumbs if they don’t pay. I will continue to take advantage of my right to gamble online – not by wistfully gambling away my money, but by knowing that if I choose to, I have that right.

Finally, with the final NFL game approaching, load up on the Ravens because the NBA is impossible to pick.

– Daoudi is a junior. Send him your comments at rd981098.