RAWA supporter rebuffs state lottery officials

Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz, who is spearheading this year’s reintroduction of the Adelson-inspired Restoration of the American Wire Act, displayed either arrogance or ignorance earlier this month in discussing the online gambling banning measure with lottery officials from a number of states.

The discussion reportedly took place in a conference call that involved twenty state lottery officials, who were justifiably concerned at the intrusion on states’ rights that Chaffetz’s federal RAWA represents.

Chaffetz concluded his defence of the banning bill by suggesting that if states didn’t like the proposals contained in his bill they should author and introduce their own measures.

That rather dismissive comment caught the attention of attorney Mark Hichar, who was participating in the discussion, prompting the legal man to comment that he found the Chaffetz comment surprisingly provocative and:

“It seemed very odd that you would expect a state to file federal legislation to enable it to be able to conduct gaming within its borders.”

Hichar took the opportunity to agree with other legal experts who contend that the very title of the Restoration of the American Wire Act is inaccurate, observing that the Chaffetz measure (reportedly drafted originally by Adelson lobbyists) is not focused on any restoration of the 1961 Wire Act, but on the expansion of its prohibitions.

The original Wire Act focused on telecommunications (the internet had not yet appeared in 1961) used for sports betting. Later generations of federal enforcers tried to unilaterally expand that to include internet gambling in general, but in December 2011 the Department of Justice clarified that the Wire Act referred only to sports betting.

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