Anti-online gambling congressman announces resignation

One of online gambling’s more devious opponents, Republican Congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, has announced he is to resign from Congress ‘in the coming weeks’ before his term ends.

Dent gave little indication of the rationale behind his resignation, saying in his announcement only that he had made the decision after family discussions and careful reflection.

His departure appears to have been planned since at least September last year, when he announced that he would not be seeking re-election when his term ended.

Our readers may recall the unsuccessful attempts by the Pennsylvanian Congressman to introduce a federal ban on online gambling in the United States by supporting Sheldon Adelson’s Restoration of the American Wire Act (RAWA) – an attempt to reverse a considered 2011 Office of Legal Counsel opinion that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting.

What angered many in the industry was the rather devious manner in which Dent chose to execute his plan. Instead of an upfront presentation of his proposal for open debate he resorted to attempting to insert RAWA-like language into an important Appropriations bill in the House. He introduced the amendment but subsequently withdrew it, presumably through lack of support.

Last year there were rumours that Dent was going to take another run at the appropriations bill tactic (see previous report), but it did not materialise and was roundly slammed by former Congressman and Republican Ron Paul, who wrote in an op-ed piece that trying to sneak an online gambling ban into an unrelated appropriations bill suggested that those responsible were aware that the case for banning would not stand up to public scrutiny.

“Otherwise, they would work to have their bill considered under regular order with a full and fair debate,” Paul observed.