Crony capitalism criticised in new op-ed

In a scathing op-ed in the Washington Examiner this week, political columnist Eric Peters detailed how land casino mogul Sheldon Adelson uses his billions to wield political and media clout to achieve his personal agendas.

Among these is his antipathy to legalised and regulated online gambling, and Peters details the millions he is prepared to spend on PR initiatives, lobbying, political donations and election campaign support in thus far unsuccessful attempts to impose a federal ban across the United States, regardless of the rights of individual states to make their own decisions.

Peters points to Adelson’s generous political funding and its association with two failed attempts to progress the land casino mogul’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act by top Republican lawmakers like Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and Rep. Jason Chaffetz and condemns this sort of crony capitalism.

Peters is also well-informed on the latest tactics deployed by Adelson-Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling lobbyists, detailing the recent attempts by politicians and lobbyists to persuade new Attorney General Jeff Sessions to direct the Department of Justice to “..issue its own directive by-passing Congress entirely, declaring that legal, state-regulated online gaming in states such as New Jersey, Delaware and of course Adelson’s home state of Nevada is no longer allowed.”

In this he is referring to attempts to have a 2011 opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel in the DoJ reversed; that opinion was that the 1961 Wire Act applies only to sports betting and not to more generalised online gambling.

Peters also warns that the dubious tactic of attaching unpalatable legislation like RAWA to unrelated but must pass spending bills has in the past been deployed by the Adelson faction – a timely reminder given recent reports that Rep. Charlie Dent and others are plotting to include RAWA language to the large State Justice Commerce Appropriations bill coming up for consideration this week.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/online-gambling-ban-is-a-power-play-by-casinos/article/2628152