RAWA alert – New hearing soon?
News on 3 Dec 2015
News on 3 Dec 2015
The lull in activity on Sheldon Adelson’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act – a bill designed to federally ban online gambling in the United States – could be interrupted soon with another heavily biased hearing driven by Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
John Pappas, executive director at the Poker Players Alliance action group, tweeted Wednesday:
“The on again, off again iGaming hearing in Congress is now on again. OGR Comm chaired by Chaffetz expected to push RAWA on December 9th-jp.”
Pappas’ warning confirms earlier rumours that Chaffetz’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold another RAWA hearing on December 9th, resurrecting an issue that has largely been dormant in committee since a previous hearing in March this year.
However, there has been no official notification of a new hearing, or advice on the proposed witness list. If Chaffetz has learned a lesson from the all but one farcically prejudiced witnesses he presented in March before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security (see previous reports), much the same can probably be expected.
However, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee could be a tougher sell; it’s 43 members include only three RAWA co-sponsors (including Chaffetz himself) and there are a number of influential and outspoken Republican and Democrat members who are perturbed by RAWA’s interference with states’ rights.
In addition, eight of the members represent states where some form of online gambling activity has been accepted…and RAWA represents a threat to those operations, which contribute to state coffers. Seven other members come from states known to be mulling online activity.
Widely believed to have been drafted by Adelson lobbyists, neither the Senate nor House versions of RAWA have made much progress since the controversial legislation surfaced in 2014, despite determined misinformation efforts by the Adelson-funded Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling and expensive lobbying activity.
