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With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trying to use the tax cut package President Barack Obama brokered with Republicans to legalize online poker, gambling is back in the news.

Once again, oft-rehashed arguments against legalizing gambling that lack empirical evidence are rearing their heads in Washington. Milan Kundera, the great Czech writer, gave the best definition for "stupidity": "It means not ignorance," he wrote, "but the non-thought of received ideas." People are entitled, of course, to their opinions. But they are not entitled to the facts. So here they are.

In 1388 Richard II passed a statute requiring people to buy items necessary for the martial arts and to stop spending money on "casting stone, and other importune games." A century and a half later, Henry VIII passed a law against gambling on the grounds that it diminished military ability because people spent leisure time gaming rather than practicing archery. Or so the bowyers, fletchers, stringers and arrowhead makers claimed in their petition. If you cannot compete, then get the government to outlaw the competition and disguise your motives with patriotic or moral outrage.

The Puritans condemned gambling because they opposed "idleness." The Massachusetts Bay Colony in its first year of existence outlawed not only the possession of cards, dice and gaming tables, but also dancing, singing and all "unnecessary" walking on Sundays. The Blue Laws of Connecticut in 1650 denounced gambling because it fostered too much "unfruitful" time.

Only in 1737 did the Massachusetts legislators change anti-gambling laws, noting that lawful games and exercises are innocent and moderate recreations...

Reuven Brenner holds the Repap Chair at McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management. Gabrielle A. Brenner is an associate professor of economics at HEC Montreal.

Read full article: , December 23, 2010

Read the article translated by the National Bank of Poland: (December 27 2010)