In 1961 the Wire Act was created in the United States to stop gamblers from placing bets via wire communications, which at the time was strictly a telephone. The act was created so long ago that it did not fit with today’s society and the United States Department of Justice ruled in 2011 that the Wire Act should only apply to sports betting.
These changes allowed states to offer online gambling, which Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have done. Sheldon Adelson, a big opponent of online gaming, has decided to draft a piece of legislation that would essentially overturn the changes made to the Wire Act. This would make online gaming in the US, once again, illegal.
Adelson, who is the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands, has strongly opposed online gaming from the very beginning. He has done interviews and written articles on the subject but this seems to be the first time that he has actually done something tangible. The new federal bill is titled the Internet Gambling Control Act and according to a recent report by PokerUpdate, the draft of the bill was published first online by Agentmarco.com.
The proposed bill is still in the final stages and will require certain revisions before it is introduced to lawmakers. The copy published shows that Adelson is particularly speaking about online poker and wants legislators on a federal level to change the Wire Act to be restored. With the restoration of the Wire Act, the draft states that ‘Congress and the public’ would have more time to examine the issues that surround online gambling, which includes the following: (according to the draft)
Money laundering
Fraud
Cyber-crimes
Participation of minors
Terrorism financing
With the New Year and a few months of online gaming in action, more states are beginning to consider the option. Adelson is trying to prevent any other individual states from joining the three already in progress.
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