Online Gambling: ‘Unrealistic for Congress to Put the Internet Back in a Bottle’
Tom Russell, director of the Coalition for Consumer and Online Protection, tells Vegas Inc., “It’s really unrealistic for Congress to step into the role of, for all intents and purposes, trying to put the Internet back in a bottle".
Russell was referring to casino magnate and GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson’s attempts to ban online gambling in the US at the federal level and his push to see legislation get passed in this session.
The odds of that happening, most experts agree, are not very good. Govtrack.com is giving the bill a 1 percent to 8 percent chance of passing this year.
The proposed ban was drafted by Adelson cronies Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
The ban would essentially roll back state efforts to legalize some forms of online gambling more than two years after the Department of Justice reinterpreted the Wire Act of 1961 to allow for gaming on the Internet in states where gambling is legal. Thus far Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey are the only states to have legalized the activity. Sports betting is still prohibited under federal law.
Robert Shore, an analyst for Union Gaming Group, said Congress has little incentive to act for now because online gaming has been legalized in so few places.
“If more and more states would enact online gaming at the state level, I think at some point there would be more interest for a federal bill,” he said.
That's a sharp contrast to the thought process from earlier this year where supporters of the ban expressed an urgency to pass legislation out of fear that other states would act quickly to legalize Web gambling. But, to date, state licensed legalized Internet gambling has failed to live up to initial expectations.
J.D. Morris of Vegas Inc notes:
Adelson's opponents in the online gaming debate are spending heavily on lobbying as well. Caesars Entertainment, for example, spent $980,000 in the second quarter to press for issues that included online gaming, according to OpenSecrets. Boyd Gaming spent $230,000 in the same quarter, and MGM Resorts has spent $240,000 this year, OpenSecrets reported.
Notably, however, Nevada senators Harry Reid and Dean Heller do not appear inclined to speed up the process, Morris added.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
