More responses to Adelson attack on online gambling

New Jersey state Senator Ray Lesniak, the lawmaker who played a leading role in the legalisation of New Jersey intrastate online gambling has come out with guns blazing over land gambling baron Sheldon Adelson’s planned political and publicity campaign to federally ban internet gambling.

Lesniak said Tuesday that Adelson’s campaign would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs, billions in revenue to Atlantic City’s casinos and hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax revenue.

“We already have given the legal authority for Internet gaming in New Jersey, and state regulators have done a good job in reviewing and authorizing licenses for online gaming businesses,” Lesniak said. “Imposing a federal ban on Internet gambling for New Jersey would be an economic catastrophe.”

Lesniak called on New Jersey’s congressional delegation, the state’s casino industry, public officials and the business community to fight off Adelson’s effort.

“Adelson has started a campaign to shut down New Jersey’s internet gaming, which will cost the loss of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of revenues to Atlantic City’s ailing casinos and hundreds of millions of dollars to the state treasury,” said Lesniak in a statement.

The senator confirmed that he had written to every casino CEO in New Jersey; the state’s congressional delegation; the Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce; and the head of the casino workers union alerting them to Adelson’s actions and urging them to help stop the attempt to take away the authority of US states to permit online gambling.

Lesniak had a personal message for Adelson, too, saying:

“Mr. Adelson, you should take your campaign and direct it where gambling has the most negative impact – lottery sales.

“Convenience stores sell lottery tickets right across from low income housing projects. You should put your billions to work helping those folks get good paying jobs and job training and to support preschool education funding.”

The senator also fired a broadside at former New York Governor George Pataki, a Republican politician named by Adelson as assisting in the promotion of his campaign, saying:

“Shame on you, Governor Pataki. You promoted selling lottery tickets to poor people but now that you’re getting paid big money, you’ve ‘gotten religion’ about gambling.”

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