Congressman Steven Horsford, who represents Nevada’s fourth congressional district, recently published a response to former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb’s column on the “hidden dangers of online gambling.” Webb, part of LV Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson’s anti-iGaming group, called for a federal ban on online gambling.
Horsford wrote, “Like Webb, I too know the dangers of illegal gambling. I have read the studies and seen the reports. But the notion that somehow Congress can simply legislate this problem away by instituting an ill-advised ban on all online gaming nationwide is ridiculous.”
Horsford noted in 2011, President Barack Obama’s Justice Department clarified the original intent of the Wire Act. He wrote, “When Bobby Kennedy drafted the Wire Act back in the 1960s, the purpose of the legislation was to fight the evils of illegal gambling and organized crime, not to stifle innovation or inadvertently promote an illegal black market for online gaming.”
He asked, “What would legal players in Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey do if their systems were completely shut down? They would flood into overseas black market websites that are unsafe, opening themselves up to serious risks of identify theft, fraud and money laundering.”
Furthermore, Horsford noted, “While I am sure both Mayor Webb and I agree that children should not have access to online gaming sites, there has not been one single case of this happening in any of the three states in which online gaming is legal. In fact, states like these that have successfully implemented regulated systems have created a much safer environment for consumers, including minors, who may currently be gaming illegally on overseas and black market sites. Regulated online platforms protect children far better than any federal ban.”
Finally, Horsford said, states are losing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue from online gaming. That revenue, he wrote, “could be used to improve schools, libraries and healthcare systems across the country.” He concluded, “We simply cannot turn off the internet or pretend that this technology does not exist. It is time to embrace innovation and technology, and stop putting up roadblocks that will ultimately lead us back to the days when the mob ruled the black market.”
