Poker Lobby Responds To AG Nominee's Bewildering Position On Internet Poker'De Facto Federal Prohibition' Could Come From Wire Act Reversal |
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“Shocked” was the word Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions used at confirmation hearing Tuesday for his attorney general appointment to describe his reaction to a state’s right to regulate online poker—and he’s a Republican.
His comment that he would spend time and resources to “revisit” a 2011 Department of Justice re-reading of the 1961 Wire Act that allowed states to legalize and regulate online poker sites has drawn a concerned reaction from the poker community.
The Poker Players Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots lobbying group, said following the hearing that action by a Sessions DoJ to reverse the re-interpretation of the Wire Act, which wouldn’t need the approval of Congress, would amount to a “de facto federal prohibition.”
Thus far, Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson has backed legislation to “restore” the Wire Act (RAWA), but those bills haven’t had any traction. A hearing on a RAWA bill in late 2015 turned out to be an embarrassing one for Congressmen supporting the ban.
“A reversal of [the Wire Act] decision would be a radical departure from the precedent given to the independent and legally based opinions generated by DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)," John Pappas, Executive Director of the PPA, said.
Such a move would break with longstanding tradition in the DoJ, according to the PPA.
“We…trust that he adheres to the longstanding practice of giving ‘great weight to any relevant past opinions’ when he reviews OLC’s 2011 position with regard to the Wire Act. The precedent of giving weight to prior OLC decisions is something both the Bush and Obama administrations advised in published ‘Best Practices’ memorandums."
According to the PPA, groups supporting a state’s right to regulate online gaming include the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Campaign for Liberty, Center for Individual Freedom, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Fraternal Order of Police, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Governors Association and Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
Only Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware currently have regulated online casinos for people within their respective borders, while a handful of other states have internet lottery gambling. Online lottery sales were also given the green light by the 2011 Wire Act re-reading. Massachusetts, California, New York and Pennsylvania are all seriously considering internet casinos.
On a media call last month, the American Gaming Association said that it’s pushing for “common ground” on real-money internet casino gambling.
“The issue of online gaming and the efforts to work through Congress or the Administration to address current interpretation of the Wire Act is very important to us,” AGA President and CEO Geoff Freeman said. “While we don’t have alignment in the industry as to whether or not real-money internet casino gaming should be permitted, we do have alignment that anything that is done in this area should not hinder what happens in brick-and-mortar casinos.”
The U.S. commercial casino industry is a $40 billion market. New Jersey, which controlled more than 90 percent of the regulated online casino market in 2015, saw its betting sites win about $150 million. Internet gaming in the Garden State was up about 30 percent in 2016.
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