Online gambling is a hot topic in the United States, with individual states offering online casino and poker gaming, states looking to pass legislation to do so and states who are just not interested. For years now, legislators have fought to either pass or stop online gambling from taking place. The arguments continue and one man who is behind major drives to stop online poker and casino gaming is Sheldon Adelson.
Sheldon Adelson is an elderly gentleman who is the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands. Seemingly feeling threatened, Adelson has been a strong opponent of online gambling when it comes to the United States and has voiced his opinion for years. Adelson quickly began to use his time and money to fight against online casino gaming after Nevada legalized the option.
Adelson has used several arguments to try and get legislators on his side. The CEO has managed to gain support in the form of land based casino owners, state representatives and senators among others. Those with positions of power have used their skills and position to push Sheldon Adelson’s agenda, such as Senator Lindsey Graham introducing the RAWA legislation to try and ban online gaming from taking place across the US.
Now, it has come to light that Adelson is using a group he backs to try and thwart any legislative efforts in Pennsylvania for online casino or poker gaming. The Coalition to Stop Internet Gaming has created a video message that is currently being promoted for Pennsylvania residents. The video was created by the Coalition to try and push Adelson’s agenda to stop online gambling from taking place.
The video talks about one point that Adelson seems to push, that children will be at risk with online casino activity. Adelson is pushing the idea that if online gaming is allowed, children will easily be able to log online and take part in the activity, thusly becoming addicted and introduced to something they have no business seeing. The scare tactics fail to mention that online casinos put in safeguards so that children do not have access to the online casino or poker gaming sites.
Adelson even calls out Representative John Payne in the video, a legislator who introduced online gaming measures in the state that are currently being considered. In the video, it states that Payne is working hard to ‘legalize predatory online gambling’ within the state.
John Ashbrook, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Internet Gaming, stated:
On the flip side, Representative John Payne has used his own form of scare tactics to try and see online gaming passed within the state. Payne would like to see online gaming regulated and the tax revenues created used to help the state.
This is just one of many ways that Adelson has tried to stop online casino gaming from progressing in the United States. The CEO of the Las Vegas Sands has unlimited resources, including money and supporters, to try and thwart any efforts of legalizing the option. For now, Adelson is focusing efforts on individual states. It does not seem that Adelson needs to worry about an overall passing of online gaming on a federal level, for now. It will be interesting to see what 2016 brings for online gaming in USA, if a state will pass legislation or if Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey will continue to be the only states offering online gaming options.
