Former US politician Ron Paul has recently written an opinion piece for Pennsylvania news outlet PennLive, claiming that a federal ban on online gambling would violate “the principles of federalism” and would threaten “the constitutional rights of all Americans”.
Mr. Paul is a former US Representative and a 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate. He is also known as a long-time and highly critical opponent of any limitations posed to the power of state Legislatures to decide on one legislative matter or another and a vocal supporter of the idea for limited federal power over legislative matters that should be decided by individual states.
Here it is important to note that the former politician has also been among those to oppose the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) movement that emerged with the act’s introduction in 2014.
The Latest Anti-RAWA Opinion Piece
Mr. Paul has remained firm in his stance that individual states should retain their power over the legalization and regulation of online gambling services within their borders. In his latest piece on the topic, he pointed out that the US Congress is set to resume work after its summer recess, which means that discussions over the Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2018 will begin.
As Casino News Daily reported in July, Rep. Charlie Dent, a known iGaming opponent, could try to sneak RAWA or a similar piece of legislation into Appropriations. In his PennLive opinion, Mr. Paul pointed out that the move would come as yet another special favor from US politicians to “powerful special interests”.
It can be said with almost complete certainty that the former politician referred, although implicitly, to Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has long been calling for a federal ban on online gambling and has also been among the GOP’s mega-donors for years now.
In a previous article on the topic, Mr. Paul pointed out that Mr. Adelson has clearly been trying to use his political influence to “turn his online competitors into criminals”. Here it is important to note that the businessman is CEO and Chairman of Las Vegas Sands, one of the world’s biggest developers and operators of land-based casino properties.
It is still yet to be seen whether anti-online gambling talks will be initiated within the Appropriations discussions this. However, Mr. Paul pointed out that the fact that RAWA supporters are trying to tack the legislation onto the larger Appropriations Bill means that they are well aware their arguments against iGaming are not likely to gain much support from the public.
About RAWA
As mentioned above, RAWA was introduced in 2014 by Senators Lindsay Graham and Marco Rubio. Generally speaking, the bill calls for the implementation of a federal ban on online gambling. And if the ban is eventually implemented, that would mean that the provision of online gaming services will be prohibited even in Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey where iGaming is currently legal.
Although it has a number of quite persistent proponents, among whom politicians and very powerful casino industry stakeholders, RAWA has not made any significant legislative progress. It had several hearings over the past several years but nothing more.
