Sheldon Adelson Drafts Bill to Strengthen Federal Wire Act

Sheldon Adelson is ramping up his attack on online poker and has kept his promise to draft an anti-online poker poker bill. First uncovered by Marco Valerio of AgentMarco.com, Adelson has drafted a bill titled the Internet Gambling Control Act, one that he hopes will strengthen the Federal Wire Act in order to ban online gambling.

The bill opens by calling for the restoration of the policy that the Wire Act prohibits online gambling so to “give Congress and the public time to full examine the issues surrounding Internet gambling including the potential for money laundering, fraud,terrorism financing, cyber-crimes and participation by minors, and for other purposes.

Section two of the bill calls for a comprehensive law enforcement study by the FBI within two years of the bill’s passage that will assess several key areas as related to online gambling. These include money laundering, the potential for terrorist to use online gambling for money laundering, possibilities of cyber-crimes and whether the technology exists to prevent underaged gambling.

The third part of the bill calls for clarification of the Wire Act. It starts by expanding the term “wire communication” to include the internet or any activity that uses the internet at least in part. Next, it expands the term “any sporting event or contest” to include games in part or predominantly subject to chance. This would include online poker as a portion of the game is subject to chance.

Finally, it requires that “wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers” include any transmission via the internet that crosses state boundaries.

At this time, it is unknown whether this bill will receive any support on Capitol Hill and even if it does, the bill will obviously go under massive changes before it is submitted to a vote. Click here to view a complete copy of the bill.