Foot-in-mouth week for online gambling opponents
News on 11 Mar 2015
News on 11 Mar 2015
Senator Lindsey Graham’s startling admission this week that he has never used email (yet feels qualified to discuss the perceived evils of online gambling) has been followed by another foot-in-mouth moment from Andy Abboud, one of land casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s lieutenants.
In an interview with the publication Gambling Compliance Abboud opined that his employer is unlikely to accept exemptions for state lotteries and tribes in his attempts to have US politicians ban most forms of online gambling.
That statement implies that Adelson and his big bucks calls the shots on what politicians may or may not accept in political wheeling and dealing around Adelson’s pet bill, the Restoration of the American Wire Act, currently at committee stage in the House.
RAWA is reportedly the work of Adelson lobbyists (see previous reports) although it was introduced last year and this by Republican politicians who have reportedly benefitted from Adelson’s largesse.
Media commentators have been rightly critical of the undue influence on the political establishment in the United States that big money wields, and the Adelson attempt to ban online gambling through RAWA illustrates the point.
Whilst Abboud’s comment on the face of it portrays an unpleasant level of arrogance, it also fuels the concerns of many that an unelected but wealthy citizen can so influence politicians to do his bidding.
This is not the first time that Abboud has placed his foot firmly in his mouth; Our readers will recall his memorable admission last year that a technical briefing on the security aspects of online gambling had left him behind – and this is an executive who feels qualified to understand and criticise a technology-oriented industry like online gambling!
