Obama’s documented use of internet gambling to raise money for his 2008 campaign can therefore end his presidency at the convenience of any member of Congress who turns it into An Issue That Won’t Go Away.
A Google search on “Dinner with Barack” and “Backstage with Barack” will yield ample evidence that during 2007 and 2008, the Obama campaign sent out numerous promotions that involved the following proposition. In exchange for a donation of $5 or more, the donor would gain the chance to be selected to have an expenses-paid trip to have dinner with Barack Obama or go backstage with Obama at the Democratic National Convention. There is a YouTube video in which Obama himself says, “We want to have four people who donate money this week to sit down and have dinner with me [...] We’ll fly you in, I’ll pay for dinner.” There is another in which he makes a similar pitch for the Democratic National Convention, and he says explicitly that one must donate $5 or more.
These promotions therefore contained the three elements that define a lottery or raffle: (1) mandatory payment of consideration, in this case $5 or more; (2) an element of chance; and (3) something of value as a prize. Unlicensed gambling is against the laws of almost every state, while participation in an internet gambling operation got Wilkes-Barre bar owner Patrick Patte home confinement, probation, and forfeiture of $100,000 to save his sports bar from confiscation.
- DanL
- http://att william evans
