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Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post claims that casino billionaire and GOP megadonr Sheldon Adelson has in the midst of quietly deploying a state-level political network to abolish online gambling at both the state and federal level.
We here at Gambling911.com aren’t so sure about the “quietly” part of Hamburger’s assertion as Adelson has been pretty outspoken up to this point.
But we get where the Washington Post is going. Adelson has been less vocal about his political contributions and, as Hamburger notes in his piece, these include hundreds of thousands of dollars to political committees supportive of Republican Gov. Rick Scott.and $2 million to the Republican Governors Association. He's also directed millions more to candidates for attorney general and other state-level offices across the country.
An example cited in the Washington Post:
Many of the beneficiaries of Adelson’s state donations are now siding with the billionaire as he seeks to outlaw a practice he views as a threat to the economic health of the casino industry on which he built a personal fortune.
Scott, for instance, who is facing a competitive reelection campaign this year, sent a letter late last month to congressional leaders at Adelson’s request calling on lawmakers to prevent states from legalizing Internet betting, saying the practice lets gambling “invade the homes of every American family, and be piped in to our dens, living rooms, workplaces and even our kids bedrooms and dorm rooms.”
It’s interesting to note that Florida was one of a handful of states last year that was considering options to legalize online gambling.
The same phrasing used in Scott’s letter had appeared word for word in letters signed a few weeks earlier by two other Republican governors, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas, The Post noted.
Hamburger points out that, as a means to offset monies being spent by casino lobbying efforts in support of online gambling, Adelson and his team are shaping an aggressive counter-offensive that includes television ads, triggering what may become one of the costliest lobbying battles of the year.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
