Founded in 1991, the Republican Liberty Caucus works to advance the principles of limited government, free markets and individual liberty within the Republican Party.

In a recent column, well-respected conservative pundit George Will wrote in his syndicated Washington Post column about the absurdity of laws against online casinos, and why the online casino and poker industries should be legal in the U.S. According to Casino News Authority, an online casino news agency, “It’s a huge step for a prominent Republican columnist to come out in support of the online casino industry.”

“Having turned gambling, which once was treated as a sin, into a social policy, government looks unusually silly criminalizing online forms of it,” says Will. He notes that “gambling is productive of pleasure for tens of millions of Americans for whom it is a frequent pastime,” and he doesn’t understand why “government should try to tightly circumscribe a ubiquitous human activity that generally harms nobody.”

In 2006, Congress effectively outlawed internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations.

Opines the Casino News Authority website, “it’s good to see a Republican that understands the gambling industry, and more importantly, understands the freedom that Americans should always have.”

Of course, I agree with George Will — “Congress … SHOULD fold its interference with Internet gambling and certainly should get its 10 thumbs off Americans’ freedom to exercise their poker skills online.”  Exclamation point.

At least some Republicans understand the distinction between personal moral values and government-forced ‘moral values’.