Beau Hansen
Fall is my favorite time of year; it marks the start of a new school year, the transition to winter, and fantasy football. Free fantasy football at least.
Earlier this year, our lawmakers went after the two largest providers of paid fantasy football, Draft Kings and Fan Duel, prohibiting this type of fantasy football from the state. Their reason? Gambling.
Under Idaho law, gambling (subjectively excluding raffles and bingo) is illegal. This includes slot machines, poker, blackjack, lotteries, and now, fantasy football.
One major exception to this law is the state-sponsored Idaho Lottery. Is this not communism? Let me draw a picture for you.
Imagine a time and place where gambling of all types is legal. A well-meaning politician then proposes the following idea: “In order to keep involuntary taxes (i.e. income tax, property tax, sales tax etc.) low, what if we instead introduce a ‘voluntary tax’ in the form of a state lottery. Surely voluntary taxes are better than involuntary taxes. And let’s take the proceeds from this and give it to the public schools. To make sure that this works, we will ban other gambling, ensuring that we have a monopoly.”
The people love this idea, voting this politician into office and within a few months, his Government Lottery idea is law.
Now imagine this same politician proposing the following: “My ‘voluntary tax’ idea has worked like a charm! We have managed to raise money for the schools without a coercive tax. But why should we stop here? I propose that we extend my voluntary tax idea and create government-funded car dealerships, with all profits going to infrastructure. And to ensure that this works, we will prohibit everyone else from running car dealerships.”
I think you can see how this progresses.
James Madison, the father of our Constitution, cautioned against this very progression: “There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.”
Whether it’s fantasy football, the lottery, or car dealerships, the principle is the same.
We are sliding down a slippery Orwellian slope. Who has an ice pick?
