Adelson Gives $20M to PAC One Day Before New RAWA Filed

If anyone was in any doubt about the huge part money plays in US politics, then the not-so-subtle approach by billionaire Sheldon Adelson provided a perfect example last week. After all, on Tuesday the Las Vegas Sands boss made a huge $20 million donation to a Republican Party political action committee (PAC) called the Senate Leadership Fund, and the following day a new bill that seeks to ban internet gambling (S. 3376) was filed in the US Senate.
Interestingly, Senator Tom Cotton introduced his bill, S.3376, quietly on Wednesday, September 21, without the usual level of attention associated with previous similar legislation, but fortunately the action did not go unnoticed by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). The Washington Post also shone some light on the matter, and in its article wrote:
“The day after it became public that billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson gave $20 million to a super PAC with close ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), three GOP senators introduced legislation that would effectively ban online gambling — a measure Adelson has long pushed for.”
While specific details of S.3376 are still sketchy, what is known is that it aims to overturn a 2011 decision by the Department of Justice which reinterpreted the Federal Wire Act as only prohibiting online sports betting, and not internet casino games or poker. Similar to the failed Restoration Of America’s Wire Act (RAWA), the new bill also appears to offer no exceptions for the regulated iGambling markets of Nevada, New Jersey or Delaware.
In addition to dismantling those online gambling markets already set-up, S.3376 obviously seeks to dissuade other states from pursuing similar liberal online gambling laws of their own. Adelson has personally also been less than subtle on this point, too, and while Pennsylvania contemplates introducing an iGaming bill, the owner of the Sands Bethlehem casino in Pennsylvania has stated that his reinvestment in the resort would be slashed should such legislation make progress.


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