Eric Holder Nomination Held Up Another Week

It was somewhat unexpected but the nomination for Attorney General, Eric Holder, will be put on hold for at least another week Gambling911.com has learned.

Senate Republicans forced the Judiciary Committee to delay a vote on Eric Holder due to lingering doubts over Holder's role in the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.  There was an apparent confrontation between Holder and a Republican Senator.

This weekend, the online gambling sector expressed concern over Mr. Holder's responses to Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl's questioning whereby the AG nominee affirmed he would continue to enforce laws against the industry.

Below is a transcript of that exchange:

SEN. JOHN KYL (R-AZ): But the question that I'd ask and wanted just to get confirmed for the record is that you indicated that under your leadership the Department of Justice would continue to aggressively enforce the law against the forms of Internet gambling that DOJ considers illegal.

ERIC HOLDER (US ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE): That's correct, Senator.

(ED. NOTE: US DoJ has testified that it considers all Internet gambling, even horse racing, as illegal).

KYL: And then we discussed the regulations that were issued recently, actually, jointly by the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department in consultation with the attorney-general.

The regulations primarily try to go at the problem by thwarting the payments for unlawful Internet gambling -- in other words, to shut off the cash flow.

And I mentioned the fact that they were already beginning to spend millions of dollars in an effort to try to undo these regulations somehow and hope that you would -- and you indicated you would -- oppose efforts to modify or to stop those regulations, and, of course, continue to be vigilant in enforcing those regulations to shut off the flow of cash from this illegal activity. Is that your intention?

HOLDER: Yes, that is my position. That's what I will do.

KYL: Yes, thank you, and I appreciate that very much. And we could talk a lot more about the pernicious nature of Internet gambling, but in view of the time here, let me move on.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher