Senator Lindsey Graham has slipped language favorable to his Restore America’s Wire Act—which would make online gambling illegal in the U.S.—into a Congressional funding bill.
The language does not carry the weight of law, but online gambling proponents charge that Graham is trying to revive his bill which has received little support in Congress.
The RAWA bill is seen as the brainchild of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who has financed efforts to have online gambling outlawed.
The language was added to a $56.3 billion funding bill authored by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
It reads: “Internet Gambling—Since 1961, the Wire Act has prohibited nearly all forms of gambling over interstate wires, including the Internet. However, beginning in 2011, certain States began to permit Internet gambling. The committee notes that the Wire Act did not change in 2011. The committee also notes that the Supreme Court of the United States has stated that ‘criminal laws are for courts, not for the government, to construe.’”
The language refers to a 2011 ruling by the U.S. Department of Justice that the federal wire act did not outlaw intra-state online gambling confined within a state’s borders. New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have since approved online gambling.
Though the language constitutes little more than opinion and could be removed in committee, online gambling advocates see it as a backdoor way for Graham to set a precedent and revive his bill.
