Adelson dealt blow in US anti-online gaming push

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and chief executive of Las Vegas Sands, has suffered a major setback in his ongoing effort to ban online gambling in the US.

According to TheHill.com, a survey conducted by the Institute for Liberty during this month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland found that nine in 10 participants would oppose any efforts to have the federal government overturn state laws regarding internet gaming.

In addition, 88% of respondents said that they saw the ‘Restore America’s Wire Bill Act’ (RAWA), which Adelson has championed for a number of years, as an example of cronyism.

Adelson is a long-time critic of internet gambling and had been pushing for RAWA to be passed in order to re-introduce laws that would ban online gaming activities in all states across the US.

In 2011, the US Department of Justice ruled that individual states could legalise online gaming within their own borders. Adelson and his lobbyists have so far been unsuccessful in their efforts to overturn that, and the news that the majority of conservatives do not support the legislation will come as a major blow.

Earlier this year, lawmakers in New Jersey, one of just three states that have legalised online gambling, called on President Donald Trump to oppose any efforts to reintroduce a nationwide ban.

Online gaming is also currently legal in Delaware and Nevada, although various other states have introduced legislation in a bid to regulate the sector.

Related article: New Jersey calls on Trump to oppose online gaming ban