U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) plans to attach anti-online gambling legislation onto the Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2018. Dent’s inclusion is Restore America’s Wire Act (RAWA), a bill supported by Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.
Restore America’s Wire Act is a bill first introduced to the US Congress in 2014, when U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) sponsored the legislation. RAWA would ban online gambling at the federal level, thus making the online gambling industries of New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware illegal.
RAWA Attached to Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2017
This is not the first time RAWA has been attached to an appropriations bill. Last year, Lindsey Graham and Charlie Dent attached RAWA to the versions of the Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2017 in their respective houses of Congress. Little interest was shown in the bill, so RAWA was removed before the final vote in 2017.
For that reason, it is possible that Charlie Dent’s inclusion of RAWA is nothing for online gambling proponents to fear. Charlie Dent and his colleagues might be going through the motions of adding a major donor’s pet legislation to a bill, knowing it will be ignored or denied by their allies in the United States Congress.
UIGEA and the Safe Port Act
At the same time, Dent’s sponsoring of RAWA is a sign that anti-online casino and poker legislation could be passed with relatively little fanfare or deliberation. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 lacked much support in Congress, but was attached to the Safe Port Act — a bill passed with patriotic ferver that few lawmakers would have voted against.
RAWA Supporters in the US Senate
Sheldon Adelson has cultivated a number of key supporters for Restore America’s Act, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). To secure that kind of support, Adelson donated $20 million to the Senate Leadership Fund. He also donated tens of millions of dollars to Republican causes in the 2016 election cycle, including one of the biggest donations to President Donald Trump’s election campaign.
For his part, Sen. Tom Cotton, a respected Gulf War veteran who is considered a rising power in Republican politics, submitted his own RAWA-like bill to Congress in September 2016.
When Senator Cotton submitted S. 3376, he referred to it as “a bill to ensure the integrity of laws enacted to prevent the use of financial instruments for funding or operating online casinos are not undermined by legal opinions not carrying the force of law issued by Federal Government lawyers.”
Frelinghuysen Could Drop RAWA from Budget Bill
A key figure in the appropriations bill every year is Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. As an influential member of Congress from New Jersey, one would expect Rep. Frelinghuysen to protect the online gambling interests of his home state. New Jersey has spent the past four years building a thriving iGaming niche, so it would cost Frelinghuysen’s state hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years to allow RAWA to become the law of the land.
Frelinghuysen’s role in the budget process underscores why it is important to the online gambling industry in general that Pennsylvania might legalize online casinos and poker sites soon. Every state which legalizes and regulates online gambling is another set of potential congressmen who might bar the way for a bill like RAWA. Next year, Pennsylvania might have legal online poker and casinos, so Charlie Dent might be less enthusiastic about introducing a bill that would cost his state hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Importance of Pennsylvania Online Gambling Bill
Having another big state like Pennsylvania legalize online gambling is especially important, due to the large number of US congressmen the state has (20). California and New York State have have serious discussions about passing online poker bills in recent years, and their inclusion in the pro-online gambling camp would be just as pivotal — if not more so.
For now, the chances that Charlie Dent will ramrod RAWA inot the Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2018 remains small. While several key Republican lawmakers support the bill, most do not.
In fact, many Republican and conservative politicians are outspoken critics of Restore America’s Wire Act, because of its implications for the relationship between state and federal government. Men like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), and NRA Vice President Grover Norquist are outspoken critics of a federal ban on online gambling, due to states rights concerns.
