A war over online gambling is expected to spill out in Congress this week as opponents move to restore a long-standing Internet gambling ban and block Uncle Sam from creating a sprawling new federal department to police the web.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., plan to introduce legislation to challenge two bills introduced earlier this session that would either create an “Office of Internet Poker Oversight” in the Commerce Department or a broader “Office of Internet Gambling Oversight” in the Treasury Department.
Those bills, also sponsored by Republicans, were inspired by states eager to cash in on gambling and the Justice Department’s abrupt move in December 2011 to reinterpret the 1961 Interstate Wire Act that effectively banned Internet gambling. Without informing Congress beforehand, Justice ruled that the law only prohibited sports gambling, opening the door for states to legalize online gambling and lottery games.
In addition to dividing Republicans, the legislation has split casino operators. Backing online betting is Democratic donor and casino investor George Soros. GOP donor and casino owner Sheldon Adelson is fighting it, concerned that online wagering will cost jobs in traditional betting parlors and hurt small casinos located outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He has even created a group to kill the bill, The Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling.
Other critics, like Ken Blackwell, a prominent legal and family advocate, noted that casinos are already heavily regulated and that legalizing online betting would bring those rules to the Internet to “create a brand new form of government internet content cops and destroy the sort of openness that’s on the web.”
Shoes for wife if Obama wins NCAA bet
President Obama’s NCAA bracket, distributed by the White House, and his comments that he would buy the first lady shoes if he won, may have crossed strict ethics lines barring federal workers from doing their own brackets while on duty.
Officials in several federal offices have told Secrets that they have been ordered to stay off their work computers when drawing up their gambling brackets for the annual March Madness basketball tournament.
The president regularly releases his bracket and this year is using it in his administration’s effort to jazz younger Americans into signing up for Obamacare. But he stepped into the gambling area when ESPN asked him what he planned to do with any winnings.
“You know I’m sure somebody would ask me to pay down more of the federal debt,” he said, adding, “Michelle might want a few shoes.”
A federal memo provided to Secrets said that even a $5 pool entry fee is barred. “Like it or not, participating in a money-betting pool for NCAA basketball games in the workplace on duty time violates ethics laws and subjects employees to disciplinary action,” said the memo.
Chris Christie in 2016 doesn’t worry Dems
Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is warming to the possibility that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could be the Republican’s 2016 presidential nominee.
“I think it’s humorous that Chris Christie is the best example of the Republican’s evolution and ability to win the presidential election in 2016,” she said, mocking his staff’s involvement in the so-called Bridgegate affair.
“If that is what they are going to hang their hat on, a guy whose senior staff exacted retribution against his own constituents in retaliation for a Democratic mayor not supporting their candidate, then I think we’re going to be OK,” she said.
Press worries Obama is cutting access
The complaints that President Obama’s press office is curbing access is prompting the media to finally lash out.
In the latest media charge that the White House has reneged on promises to be “transparent,” two of the Associated Press’ White House staff told a newspaper convention in Denver that the president’s team often bars coverage of Obama events because they are “hypersensitive” about his Image.
AP White House photographer Charles Dharapak said photographers weren’t even allowed to snap shots of the president’s recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.
“Once we lose access, we’ll never get it back,” he said.
To get around media coverage, the White House tries to control coverage by posting items on social media sites. “We don’t fault them for using these methods of social outreach,” said Dharapak. “Just don’t shut the independent press out.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
