Republican Senator James Leach and Bet on Sports CEO David Carruthers have made headlines in the online gambling industry, following a highly publicized debate between the two adversaries.

Mediated by the Wall Street Journal Online, David Carruthers, chief executive of online sports betting firm Bet on Sports, participated with Congressman Jim Leach in an online debate designed to highlight the main issues for the politician’s latest anti-gambling proposal. The email exchange was widely read by online gambling operators and casino fans on the Wall Street Journal Online’s website.
Congressman Leach has recently sponsored a bill which aims to prevent transactions to online gaming firms through a variety of financial institutions. The bill is currently waiting for a second hearing in the House Judiciary Committee next month.

Leach began the debate with the statement that online gambling firms "sweep dollars out of the U.S. into largely unknown, often criminal hands." Carruthers argued that instead of prohibiting the industry, it would be far more beneficial to regulate it. "Prohibiting online gambling would be catastrophic," he said. “Prohibition would not stop online gambling. It would send it underground and leave the vulnerable unprotected."

The debate continued with several email exchanges between Leach and Carruthers. In one exchange, the politician declined an invitation from Carruthers to visit his firm’s corporate facility in San Jose, Costa Rica. Leach turned the offer down, stating that it would be "ethically dubious, if not illegal" for a U.S. politician to visit the online gaming company.

While the verdict is out on who the true winner of the online debate was, several industry insiders believe that Carruthers performed well, offering sound arguments for his position and even exposing crucial flaws in Leach’s motivation for the proposed legislation.
The Wall Street Journal Online decided to run the debate following high levels of interest in an earlier online poll conducted by the news media. The Journal polled over 10,000 respondents and found that 85 percent were firmly against the U.S. government’s attempts to ban online gaming.

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