Will the new US Attorney General kill online gaming?

[The Buzz]

Rumors have been swirling that new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will attempt to reverse a 2011 legal opinion from the Obama Department of Justice that re-interpreted the 1961 Wire Act so that states wouldn’t violate federal law by having online gambling.

From Poker News Daily:

Sheldon Adelson’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) was introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on multiple occasions in the last few years and even had a couple hearings in the House, but in the end, even Republicans saw it for the blatant crony capitalism that it was.

The threat of a gambling ban was over. Unfortunately, the poker community is starting to get a bit worried again as the rumors have started that the Trump administration may look to get a ban going soon.

According to GamblingCompliance (sorry, there’s a paywall), “Gambling lobbyists in Washington, D.C. are abuzz with speculation that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is on the verge of announcing plans to overturn the 2011 legal opinion which cleared states to regulate internet gambling.”

In response, former U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) wrote an excellent opinion piece for The Hill, detailing why an iGaming ban is a bad idea.

RAWA seeks to change that historic structure of the states governing themselves by having the federal government dictate gambling laws for everyone . . . While casino magnates like Sheldon Adelson may support outlawing online games as a way to drive business to their brick-and-mortar casinos, even Georgians who oppose gambling should recognize this as a subtle attempt to centralize even more power in Washington.

Read the entire opinion piece here: https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs...-to-ban-online