Conservative columnist Michelle Minton just wrote an interesting op-ed piece for Forbes.com on why Republicans, and by extension, conservatives in general, should favor legalized Internet gambling.

Minton’s arguments come in the wake of the recent passage by the House Financial Services Committee of a bill that would legalize Internet gambling, including online poker, in the United States and set up a federal regulatory framework for it.

Her case in favor of the bill is a libertarian one: a classic conservative argument, she says, is “that the government should not have the right to tell private individuals what behavior they may or may not engage in the privacy of their own home, so long as that activity doesn’t infringe on the rights of others.” This applies very well to gaming in one’s own living room, using one’s own computer and mouse.

A legislator’s private belief that people shouldn’t gamble, she says, is “no reason to abandon the conservative ideals of limited government, individual rights and personal responsibility in the public sphere.”

Please see full article below for more information.