Tomorrow Sheldon Adelson gets to unwrap an early Christmas
present courtesy of Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Grumpy): The second hearing
on his RAWA bill HR707 (aka Restore America’s Wire Act, or Restore Adelson’s
Wampum Act, depending on your view). As
there’s lots of similarities between this hearing and the one held last Spring.
For one thing, the witnesses scheduled to give testimony
once again fail to include anyone remotely connected to the very industry
Chaffetz wishes to interrogate investigate. And it’s slanted toward the “gambling is bad”
side. Another similarity – despite the
idea of holding a hearing being a key step in a move to actually get the bill
passed, there is NO mention of it on Adeslon’s CSIG’s site. It’s almost as if they don’t want their own supporters
to know about it. To his credit, Chaffetz’s
Facebook page has a mention (he didn’t do that last time). That’s the only credit Jason gets from me.
The cast of characters
this time is a bit different – the March hearing was before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and
Investigations. This
one is in front of a larger crowd – the House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform. The theme is
different, too, with the not-so-subtle title of this hearing being “A CASINO IN EVERY SMARTPHONE –
LAW ENFORCEMENT IMPLICATIONS.” And the
witnesses are more law-and-order types – from the FBI, an Attorney General (one
of the 8 who signed the letter supporting RAWA), a State Senator from Nevada
(the one guy who might be on our side), and the attorney from Douglas County, Nebraska.
Let’s examine this last one first. Donald Kleine has been the Attorney for Douglas
County since 2007 (Douglas County is the most populous county in Nebraska –
Omaha is the county seat). He’s a
Democrat (but a Midwestern one, so he’s no screaming liberal). But why is he testifying?
For one thing, his election campaign website
calls him “tough on crime.” For another
thing, he knows the Abbouds. According
to this
website, at one time he was part of Abboud Law. Or did something with them, it’s not
clear. We’re talking Greg and Chris
Abboud. Brothers of Andy. Andy of “Sheldon Adelson’s right-hand man.”
So there’s THAT connection.
As for his written testimony, he’s been taught
well. He uses a lot of the CSIG
buzzwords (“the challenges of local law enforcement
in protecting our most vulnerable citizen from the dangers that lurk in
the realm of online gambling”) and conflagulates the idea of legal
and regulated online gaming with the nefarious off-shore stuff (run by “massive foreign companies”).” The big stinker (to me) was this: “Finally, online gambling activities are extremely difficult
to monitor because users can remain largely anonymous.” This would come as a shock to anyone who
signed up in New Jersey and surrendered their name, address, social security
number, etc. etc. etc.
Anonymous my ass.
Alan Wilson is the Attorney General for South Carolina, one
of the strictest states (next to Utah) when it comes to gambling. Sure, they have a lottery and some charitable
bingo, but that’s it. It wasn’t always
that way – for nearly twenty years SC was the largest video poker community in
the country (more than 33,000 machines) until operations were shut down in late
1999. Wilson’s written testimony also
has many classic CSIG catchphrases – Founding Fathers, States Rights (no,
really), FBI warnings, and so on. He
talks about how “In South Carolina, gambling is largely
prohibited and has been throughout the
history of our state” (emphasis mine) and one wonders where Wilson
was from 1980 to 1999 when there was a video poker machine on every corner.
He gets there, eventually, calling the experience “traumatic.” He then gets to pull in the anecdotal stories
about Mom’s leaving their kids in the car to die while they played video poker,
and other fun stuff (addictions, embezzlements, and organized crime). From there it’s a quick step to the 2011 DOJ
ruling and how that opens the door to “…entities, many
of which are foreign-national corporations, to operate online casinos in states
like Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey without any assurance that these online
casinos are not being accessed in states like South Carolina.” That’s whopper #1.
Whopper #2 comes next: “…the reality is offices like
mine, charged with the responsibilities of enforcing our own gambling laws and protecting
the public, cannot be expected to rely on the good faith of massive foreign owned gambling
companies licensed by other states.”
I kinda thought technology was in play rather than “good faith” but what
do I know? And I had no idea that all of
the entities in NJ, NV, and DE were “massive foreign-owned gambling companies.” And he closes with the killer: “As a result of
the DOJ opinion…it is almost impossible for parents to protect their children
from accessing virtual casino games on their smartphones, tablets and
laptops. Now, casinos are almost ubiquitous on every street corner in
America as the virtual clouds and mobile devices operate anywhere at every hour
of the day.”
Hey, Mr. Wilson! If
it’s that easy to do – access one of these legal gaming sites from your office
in South Carolina – PROVE IT. TRY
IT. And once you’ve failed, STFU.
As for Joseph Campbell, the Assistant
Director, Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI – I haven’t
found any links to him and online gaming.
I do know he’s done work dealing with “vulnerable children” and “human
trafficking” but nothing on poker and clicking your mouse/lose your house
activity.
Finally, there is Mark Lipparelli, State Senator from Nevada. Prior to this position, he was Gaming Control Board Chairman to the Nevada Gaming Commission. He was part of the process that led to Nevada
going online, he’s worked for a firm involved with the customer
verification process for online gaming, and he’s been a strong advocate for
online poker ALL
ACROSS AMERICA. Finally, someone who
ACTUALLY KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THE THING CHAFFETZ WANTS TO ELIMINATE REGULATE EXAMINE.
I’m
sure tomorrow’s hearing will be both fair and balanced. Hah – I’ll have a follow-up post in a day or
two.
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