Chances for the Restoration of America Wire Act otherwise nicknamed as Adelson bill passing has been put at 8 percent. This information has been provided by Govtrack.us a congressional monitoring site. Adelson is a land casino mogul who has been supporting the bills to make online gaming illegal in the US.
The little chances of the bills succeeding means that Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jason Chaffetz the Utah Representative could be disappointed if they go on with their quest to have Internet gambling banned. This is through their support of the Restoration of America Wire Act whose aim is to ban online casinos.
Currently, federal legislators have gone for August break with the bills having not gained foothold at the committee stage neither in the senate nor in the house. This is despite the bills having received a lot of lobbying and spending by companies supporting them and others opposing them.
According to Govtrack, the Senate bill introduced by Graham only has a one percent chance of enactment while the Chaffetz House bill has an eight percent success chance. Chances for a federal bill being enacted now are slim because the Congress is not motivated to act. The reason is being that online gambling has only been legalized in a few States. If more states legalized online gaming, then the Congress would be interested in enacting a federal bill.
Despite the odds of the bills being enacted being high, this has not stopped those who are supporting the ban. One of the heavy supporters of the online gambling ban is Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands multi billionaire and his family. They have spent heavily on lobbying for the ban. While approached to comment on the estimates provided by Govtrack.us, the Las Vegas Sands did not give any comment. Internet gambling is a threat to land casino and that is why the land casino owner is campaigning for the ban.
Those who are against the banning of internet gambling such as MGM and Caesars Entertainment have also spent a lot in the lobbying. The companies are aware that banning of internet gambling will affect their investments and revenues because they will be out of their business.
As observed by Vegas Inc., Senators for the affected State of Nevada Dean Heller and Harry Reid are not enthusiastic about the banning bill. At least, they have not shown it in public. If Internet gambling is banned, it could have a negative impact on the online poker, which has been legalized in the State of Nevada. The Senators have not given decisive comments on whether they support or are against the bills introduced by Graham and Chaffetz.
Coalition for consumer and online protection director, Tom Russell said that the group is against the ban and it is doing all it can to ensure that banning of the Internet gambling does not take place. The director of the pro-internet gambling group said that it is not realistic for Congress to take the role of banning Internet gambling.
