Harry Reid has announced that he will not seek re-election once his term is up. The current Senate Minority Leader has decided not to seek re-election because “he was worries his race would consume campaign money that would be needed in other competitive states as Democrats try to regain control of the Senate.”
The oft-delayed hearing of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act has a new hearing date, and it’s soon. RAWA, which was previously scheduled to be heard on March 5th, will be appearing before a congressional subcommittee on March 26th.
If you’ll recall, online gambling was up for both December and January. We had mentioned how great it’d be if the momentum could continue, and it did. Though it might not seem like there’s a huge growth this month, the lack of growth this month could mean a significant amount of growth in the future.
In Indiana, the Public Policy Committee passed House Bill 1270, a bill aimed to allow for online bets on horse races. It seems like everyone supports betting on horse racing – even RAWA specifically states that online betting for horse racing would be fine.
RAWA, or the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, is the bill backed by Sheldon Adelson. Initially ignored for 2014, the bill was to close the “loophole” that allowed states to legalize online gambling. We theorized that the bill would return quickly in 2015, and we were right – it was reintroduced by the man that initially introduced it, Jason Chaffetz, the Republican representative for Utah.
This past week, Sheldon Adelson and Rand Paul attended the congressional address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They have opposing views on Israel: Rand Paul supports a restrained approach, while Sheldon Adelson supports an activist military policy. They also have opposing views on something else: online gambling.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past five months, you know that sports betting is one of the hottest topics in the online gambling world. While it’s legal in Nevada, it’s illegal elsewhere. Governor Chris Christie was extremely close to legalizing it in New Jersey, but the big four sports leagues squashed that.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know who Sheldon Adelson is, but we’ll recap anyway. Sheldon Adelson is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. He’s 81 years old with a net worth of $30 billion dollars and is terrified of technology. Because of this, he opposes legalized online gambling.
New Jersey has had its fair share of ups and downs in the world of online gambling, but it appears that they’re riding a wave of success as of late. About a month ago, we reported that profits exploded for New Jersey in December. In a report published on February 13th, it appears that the trend has continued.
New Jersey may not legalize and regulate sports betting any time soon, but that’s not stopping them from allowing gambling on sporting events!
A few months ago, Chris Christie made a move to get sports betting, both online and offline, legalized in New Jersey. While it passed, it was quickly put on hold by the big four sports leagues – the MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner, later elaborated, stating that he’d love for it to be legalized and that there needs to be some sort of framework for it. Now, another member of the big four has caved.
As we’ve been saying all along, it was only a matter of time before RAWA was reintroduced to Congress. After it failed to gain traction last year, it was expected to be retooled and reintroduced. However, it wasn’t Sheldon Adelson that reintroduced it to Congress.