US Presidential hopeful pushes for online gambling ban

Texas Governor, Rick Perry has made a push to ban online gambling in America.

In March, Governor Perry – who is likely to be a presidential hopeful for the 2016 election – sent a letter to congressional leaders and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, asking Congress to reverse a 2011 Department of Justice interpretation of the Wire Act that opened the door to legalised online gambling in America.

In an interview on Monday with the American newspaper, WND, the American lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, expressed his surprise. In the span of ten years, Abramoff became the most powerful lobbyist on Capitol Hill, racking up countless clients in the casino industry and even owning a fleet of cruise-ship casinos himself.

“The gaming industry is entirely a political creation, and everything about it is politics,” Abramoff said. “These politics are generally shaped in the public good, but all of it relates to politics and market share.”

In his letter to congressional leaders, Governor Perry said asked for states to have the right to ban online gambling.

He wrote: “When gambling occurs in the virtual world, the ability of states to determine whether the activity should be available to its citizens and under what conditions … is left subject to the vagaries of the technological marketplace.”

He urged Congress to “carefully examine the short- and long-term social and economic consequences before Internet gambling spread.”