Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco and California Assembly Speaker, has joined Billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, accepting the role of co-chair of the coalition.
Brown has been on record in the past for supporting online poker in the state. In an “open letter,” Brown said he is making the switch out of concern for underage gamblers.
“There are a multitude of reasons to oppose the expansion of Internet gambling,” Brown said. “I was once on the wrong side of this issue—speaking for and supporting Internet poker—but I have since learned about some of the tactics used by online gambling companies to lure young people.”
He did not provide details of those tactics.
Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands, has been personally backing the coalition and supporting a widespread lobbying effort to impose a federal ban on online gambling. Federal legislation—which was drafted by the coalition—has been introduced in Congress to tighten the federal Wire Act to ban online gambling.
In California, where Brown will also serve as state chair for the coalition, Brown said he will work against legalizing online poker in the state. Two bills to legalize online poker are currently before the state legislature.
Brown joins a team that also includes former Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of Los Angeles, a partner in Mercury Public Affairs—which has been hired to lobby for the coalition—and Democratic political strategist Chris Lehane, according to published reports.
Meanwhile, proponents of online gambling got an endorsement from the National Governor’s Association, which came out against a federal ban.
“The nation’s governors are concerned with legislation introduced in Congress that would ban online internet gaming and internet lottery sales because it challenges the federal-state relationship,” the governors wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.
The association says a ban would take away states’ rights to regulate gaming within their borders.
“The regulation of gaming is an issue that has historically been addressed by the states,” the association said. “Regardless of whether governors are in favor of offering gaming, a strong, cooperative relationship between the states and federal government is vital to best serve the interests of all citizens.”
The Democratic Governors Association also opposes the ban, but opponents of online gambling are gaining some support from Republican governors like Texas Governor Rick Perry and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
In an op-ed piece recently written by Perry, the governor asserts that a lost point in the debate is that regulating online gaming would lead to an unprecedented regulation of the internet.
“Internet-gambling proponents are seeking to create, for the first time, formal government oversight and enforcement of a specified class of Internet content,” Perry wrote. “The expansion of internet gambling will result in the expansion of government and raise more questions about the government presence in our daily lives.”
Perry also said that the internet is a global network that cannot be controlled by 50 states adopting their own regulations, likening it to the air traffic system in the U.S.
“What if the FAA didn’t exist and there were 50 different sets of aircraft regulations? Airplanes would have to stop at every state border to ensure they were in compliance with the next state’s rules,” Perry said. “The cost of compliance with every state’s rules would be burdensome and the cost of air travel would skyrocket. The same applies to Internet gambling. State-by-state regulations would smother innovation and growth.”
Coincidentally, the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States has released a preliminary plan on a model for online gaming policy for states.
The policy framework was released after the council met with a number of different groups and stakeholders in the gaming industry.
The framework is a model for states considering adding online gambling to their gaming options and covers areas such as player protection, geolocation and user verification, and agreements between various jurisdictions, such as player-sharing compacts, the council said in a press release.
The council has also come out against a national ban on online gambling.
