Gambling Law: Sheldon's Political Donations Pay Off.

U.S. Now Says All Online Gambling Illegal, not Just Sports Bets. Bloomberg.


The decision by the US Department of Justice is a reversal of a 2011 interpretation that limited the poorly designed Wire Act to sports betting only.  This makes any and all gambling online illegal and will be challenged in court, especially by States that offer online Lottery sales based on the 2011 guidance.

This is also something that Sands owner, and huge Republican donor, Sheldon Adelson has lobbied for years to achieve. He's often argued, wrongfully, that by forcing gamblers to go to a casino they are somehow "protected" from the lessor Angels of gaming, prostitution, graft, theft etc.

This despite the fact that has been proven wrong by first person accounts, exposes, etc. Sheldon also claims that online gambling is a lure for children, while his casinos are not. Something that has also been shown historically to be untrue. 

What this ruling really does is attempt to eliminate a potential competitor for an industry who is seeing demand for it's product steadily erode over time.  Sands is uniquely unqualified to take advantage of any online gaming boom, as opposed to CET and MGM, so he's staunchly against it. He's an old man shouting at clouds.

Of course, in many states gambling in all forms, minus the lottery and on-track animal races, is illegal yet the biggest online gaming occur within their borders.  Texas, for example, has strict laws against gaming but has one of the largest illegal gambling markets in the US.

A better solution would be to repeal and rewrite the Wire Act, modernizing it and realizing that it's language is wholly incapable of regulating in a digital world. The Act itself is fatally flawed through it's failure to contemplate the current online marketplace.

Sadly, given what passes for leadership in politics this will not happen and gambling in America will continue to move in the black, offshore market, online causing either massive resources to be wasted running down individual gamblers or wasting Millions trying to hunt-down offshore book owners who reside in countries lacking extradition agreements.

Sheldon may be happier, but the actual affect of this will be akin to a raindrop hitting the ocean. Too much of the current online gambling market is occurring in unregulated areas.

At some point we're going to have to take a long look at how gaming is regulated in this Country, ridding the discussion of bad actors like Adelson and his compatriots would be a good start.