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A handful of US Senators wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for his support of their bill to reinstate a federal ban on Internet gambling.
The letter in question was signed by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), each of whom has joined forces with Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson to stop the spread of Web gambling across America. Already, three states including Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, have legalized the activity.
It was Holder’s Department of Justice, however, that reinterpreted a decades old Wire Act providing a green light to states who wished to begin offering Internet gambling as a means of boosting their local economies.
In March, Graham and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced a bill that would essentially restore the pre-2011 DOJ interpretation of the Wire Act. Chaffetz' signature does not appear on the letter sent to Holder.
The senators told Holder that they “fully expect the Senate will act on our legislation this year" though few believe any such measure can be passed in an election year. Initial reports suggest that the bill has mustered little support. It is interesting to note that the current Congress has passed the fewest bills in US history and, as such, have been labeled as the "Do Nothing Congress".
One thing is guaranteed, there won’t be any movement on this legislation in August. Congress is on vacation the entire month.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
