RAWA hearing scheduled for December 9?

It appears that Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz is contemplating a last hurrah (at least for this year) on his Sheldon Adelson-inspired Restoration of America’s Wire Act, an attempt to federally ban online gambling that has been languishing in committee stage for the last few months.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, tweeted Thursday that Chaffetz’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is planning to look at i-gaming again at a hearing on December 9.

Pappas tweeted: “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 later urged all online players to contact their political representatives to protest against the bill, currently identified in Congress as HR707.

News of the hearing coming on the heels of a biased press conference on RAWA in Washington last week suggests that the conference was convened to prepare the ground for the hearing.

A witness list has not yet emerged, but if Chaffetz follows his usual modus operandi it is likely to be heavily loaded against online gambling and short on accurate and factual information.

RAWA has mustered no more than 24 Representatives who support its objectives, and political observers doubt that the low level of political interest in its passage will grow, but a hearing in December could heighten the bill’s visibility and provide a litmus test on how favourably it is perceived in the political community.

There is also Adelson’s fall-back position of persuading politicians to stifle further online gambling legalisation progress by imposing a two year moratorium on any further state moves in this direction whilst a bogus Congressional “study” of internet gambling is conducted.

That makes another mobilisation of player opinion against this measure all the more necessary.