Harry Reid Now Hates Online Gambling
Money talks.
If there’s nothing else you learn from these articles, learn that money talks. Almost every single politician that Sheldon Adelson has approached has had a complete change of heart. It’s sickening.
Look back a few weeks ago to our article titled “Sheldon Adelson wants a favor from Harry Reid”. We talked about why Sheldon Adelson, a well known backer of the Republican Party, would want a favor from Harry Reid, a Democrat. We learned that Harry Reid is up for re-election in a few years, and it’d be all too convenient if Sheldon Adelson didn’t support the Republican in that race. Sheldon Adelson was preparing for the Restoration of America’s Wire Act to fail for 2014. It doesn’t mean the bill’s dead, but he’ll have to reintroduce it.
Harry Reid likes the casino industry. He didn’t really have a stance on the Restoration of America’s Wire Act. Now? He supports it, and he wants to ban Internet gambling. Keep in mind that Harry Reid is the Senator of Nevada. You know, that state with Las Vegas.
But it seems that after his conversations with Sheldon, he’s magically, and completely unexpectedly, had a change of heart.
“I think the proliferation of gambling on the Internet is not good for our country. I think it is an invitation to crime. I think it is hard to control for crime when you’ve got brick-and-mortor places, let alone something up in the sky someplace, and it is very bad for children.”
Really, Harry? You realize that Internet gambling, and even sports betting, is legal in Nevada, right? It’s done wonders for your state, and you’re going to suddenly turn your stance by delivering something that sounds like it came straight out of Sheldon Adelson’s mouth? In the entire history of Internet gambling, has someone come forward and said “these online Internet games are hurting my child!”, “My child stole my phone and played Internet poker!”, or anything similar? Has there been any large scale identity theft issues? No.
Harry Reid certainly wasn’t complaining when no deposit bonuses were dramatically increasing the revenue coming back into his state, but after speaking with Sheldon Adelson, he’s going to suddenly change his mind? How are we supposed to trust anything he says after this?
In 2015, expect the return of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act. It may take a while to pick up steam, but Sheldon’s obviously going to spend this holiday season getting support for his bill.
Of course, Harry Reid denied any deal with Sheldon Adelson, saying “Sheldon Adelson and I have been friends for a long time but on politics he and I don’t agree, so we don’t do politics. I’m glad he joined my position (on Internet gambling), but no, there was nothing.”
Oh, okay. Silly me. I was thinking that Sheldon Adelson was the one that’s been leading the charge to ban Internet gambling because his Las Vegas Sands corporation feels threatened by the online sites “in the sky someplace”.
For what it’s worth, Sheldon Adelson has lost roughly 20% of his fortune this year, going from $37 billion to $30 billion, but the RAWA act still failed.