Barely a month into the new Congressional session, Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz has not only reintroduced a House version of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) legislation that died in the last Congress but also now has a hearing scheduled on the bill.
On March 5, the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations will hold a hearing on RAWA. A subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, the group has jurisdiction over many aspects of the legal system including Federal Criminal Code, criminal law enforcement, homeland security and sentencing, among other things. As a part of the federal criminal code, the Wire Act of 1961 (what RAWA would attempt to rewrite) falls under the control of this Congressional committee. In examining both the committee and the subcommittee, there are many representatives who will be willing supporters of Chaffetz’ actions.
The chair of the Judiciary Committee is Virginia Representative Bod Goodlatte, who has a long history of anti-online gaming activity. One of the original sponsors of HR 4777 (the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act) in 2006. Goodlatte worked closely with then-Iowa Representative Jim Leach in pushing forward the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) later that year. Citing “moral grounds” for his reasons of support (and the lack of debate over the subject in Congress), Goodlatte has continued to be a thorn in the side of online gaming proponents for nearly his entire history in the House of Representatives.
In the subcommittee there are several members who promote themselves as “states’ rights” advocates that will probably step to the side to allow Chaffetz (and GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson) to push for the action. Texas Representative Louie Gohmert (the vice chairman of the subcommittee under Wisconsin Representative Jim Sensenbrenner) and South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy head the Republican side of the subcommittee that fall under this umbrella. One of the seven co-sponsors of Chaffetz’ RAWA initiative, Virginia Representative Randy Forbes, is also a member of this subcommittee. Unfortunately, there are few advocates for online gaming on this subcommittee that might provide a fight.
It is also unknown at this time what the witness schedule will be like for this particular hearing. The last time there was a hearing on any online gaming regulation was December 2013 when Texas Representative Joe Barton’s online poker bill (the Internet Poker Freedom Act of 2013) was reviewed by the House. In that particular hearing, there was equal representation by both sides of the argument; while the discussion of the bill was thorough, Barton’s bill failed to even make it out of the subcommittee.
Fast forward to the March hearing and it is possible that the subcommittee will hear a very one-sided report. In an effort to push the bill through the subcommittee and to the overall Judiciary Committee, Chaffetz may attempt to stack the deck with a roster of witnesses that doesn’t allow for the pro-online gaming argument to be presented.
Just last year Chaffetz attempted, alongside South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, to push through the first version of RAWA. In response to the 2011 decision by the U. S. Department of Justice that the Wire Act only applied to sports betting and not any internet activities, several states enacted online lottery sales and three states – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware – enacted laws that opened up intrastate online gaming and poker, Chaffetz and Graham introduced their bills at the behest of Adelson. Those efforts fell short, however, and both Chaffetz and Graham’s bills died with the last Congress.
Chaffetz was quick to put RAWA back into play for the 114th Congress, reintroducing RAWA in early February. It is expected that Graham will reintroduce his version at some point this month.
The hearing will be closely watched by many in the online gaming and poker communities as, if passed, RAWA would effectively ban any internet gaming and poker and would also shut down states that have passed online lottery sales and online casinos/poker sites. It will also be closely watched to see if a fair hearing will be presented.
