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President-elect Donald J. Trump earlier this week named his son-in-law, Jared C. Kushner, as Senior Advisor to the President.
Kushner, 36, a Harvard grad who is married to Trump's daughter, Ivanka, will have a West Wing office at the White House but will receive no pay.
As one of Trump's top advisors during both the Presidential campaign and the current transition period, Kushner will continue in that role when Trump becomes President of the United States next week.
Kushner will have President Trump's ear on a wide variety of issues, including any gambling-related issues that may come up, including the possible national legalization of sports betting and/or Internet gambling.
Gambling 911 examined Kushner's background to see what, if any, connections he has to gambling.
Like Trump, Kushner is a real estate developer, but unlike Trump, Kushner never invested in casinos.
Kushner does, however, have several connections to the gambling world, Gambling 911 found.
The most obvious is Kushner's close relationship with Las Vegas multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Sands company, which owns numerous casinos in the U.S. and abroad.
Adelson was an early supporter of Marco Rubio for President in the last election cycle, but after Rubio dropped out of the race, Adelson threw his support to Trump--and his dollars.
Adelson donated millions of dollars to Trump's campaign.
Kushner served as the go-between for Adelson and Trump, frequently taking meetings with the octagenarian casino mogul for his father-in-law, a former casino mogul.
Adelson remains close to the Trump family, having been named a member of Trump's Inauguration Committee.
Adelson is also a fierce opponent of legalizing online gambling, seeing it as competition for the casinos he owns.
On another note, Kushner has a younger brother, Joshua, who along with two partners co-founded an online video game company several years ago that is based in Brazil.
The company is called Vostu and it has been reported that 25 per cent of the population of Brazil has played online video games provided by Vostu, a multi-million-dollar company.
At least one of the video games provided by Vostu is gambling-related, Gambling 911 found.
The game, called Breaking Vegas, is a slot machine-themed game and winners can earn cash and prizes.
So in addition to his father-in-law formerly being in the gambling business and his good pal Adelson currently being in the gambling business, Jared's brother Joshua is also in the gambling business, albeit in a relatively minor way.
Finally, Jared Kushner has a connection to disgraced online bookie Jay Cohen, of all people.
Cohen, of course, famously was busted by the Feds in 1998 for co-owning and co-running the world's first Internet sportsbook, Antigua-based World Sports Exchange, and illegally taking sports wagers from Americans.
Cohen went on trial in Federal court and his defense was handled by famed New York attorney Ben Brafman, who promptly bungled the case and allowed Cohen to be convicted and receive 18 months in Federal prison.
Several years ago, Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, also a real estate developer, was charged with several Federal crimes, including tax fraud.
Charles' lawyer was the same lawyer Cohen had--Brafman--and once again, Brafman bungled the case.
Charles Kushner was convicted in Federal court and had to serve time in Federal prison, as Cohen had.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
