Sheldon Adelson really, really hates online gambling. I mean, it is getting to the point where I can’t help but admire his total commitment to the hate. Most people who are opposed to something are at least willing to let the other side speak, to at least consider for even the briefest of moments, the opinion of somebody else. Not Adelson. His loathing for online gambling is deeply engrained into his body and soul. He will not stop crusading. Sheldon Adelson is like the Terminator to online gaming’s Sarah Connor.
The latest in his quest to rid adults of the right to play a game of internet poker in the privacy of their own homes comes from Jon Ralston and his website RalstonReports.com. Ralston, a Nevada-based political columnist, wrote on his site on Friday that Adelson’s top lobbyist, Andy Abboud, told him that Adelson is set to “block legalization state by state.”
“We are prepared to mount full campaigns in every state where a bill is introduced to legalize any form of online gaming. “We will also be doing education in all states to prevent the introduction of any bills,” Abboud told Ralston.
And making his boss and him seem ever so reasonable and appealing, Abboud added, “We are going to make it ‘the plague.’”
This is the same Andy Abboud who got absolutely obliterated at a hearing in front of the United States House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in December. The hearing was meant to discuss HB 2666, the Poker Freedom Act, introduced by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), but the discussion mainly surrounded the safety of internet gambling.
Abboud got his lunch handed to him.
It was readily apparent during the hearing that Adelson and Abboud were so passionately opposed to online gambling because they were afraid that it would hurt their business (refresher: Adelson is Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and Abboud is the company’s Vice President of Government Relations and Community Development). Abboud talked about how Las Vegas Sands is preparing to invest billions of dollars into brick-and-mortar development in Florida and implied that online gambling would cost people jobs.
Several of the Congresspeople took Abboud and his company to task. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D – IL) showed that the Venetian, owned by Las Vegas Sands, advertises mobile real-money gaming right on its website. To that point, she said, “It feels to me…a little hypocritical.”
When Rep. Peter Welch (D – VT) asked about consumer protections in online gambling, Abboud said that customer would not be properly protected, but when Welch asked him to imagine that the technology did exist to protect consumers, Abboud said gambling still shouldn’t be on the internet.
Rep. Barton got into the act, too, telling Abboud, “What your company is advertising here, except for the geography, is the same thing my bill does.”
More recently, Sheldon Adelson is reportedly the force behind a potential bill that would amend the Wire Act of 1961 to officially outlaw all internet gambling. The bill is currently in draft status and has neither sponsors nor an actual bill number.
Last year, he formed the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, hiring experienced politicians as co-chairs: former New York governor George Pataki (R), former mayor of Denver Wellington Webb (D), and former United States Senator Blanche Lincoln (D – Ark).
