The Hill – Legislation to ban online gambling that was written with the help of lobbyists for Republican super-donor Sheldon Adelson will soon be introduced in Congress. Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., is on a crusade to stop online gambling, arguing it would be harmful to children and the nation’s moral fabric. He is pushing for a federal law to stop the industry in its tracks.

But the bill will face a firestorm of opposition from state lotteries, poker players and major casinos who see a bright future for the gambling industry online.

Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, said state lottery directors would oppose the draft bill.

“The way it’s written now, no question. We have grave concerns about this legislation and we would share them with our senators,” McIntyre said.

On Capitol Hill, legislation that would legalize online gambling has gone nowhere. Andy Abboud, senior vice president of government relations for Las Vegas Sands, said there is no public pressure to bring gaming online.

“There is no appetite for that,” Abboud said. “Gaming needs to be done in a limited way. It needs to be like alcohol. It needs to be like tobacco. It cannot be accessible to everyone.”

Draft legislation to ban online gambling was obtained by The Hill last year. The document’s metadata revealed that a lobbyist for Las Vegas Sands wrote the bill.

Darryl Nirenberg, then of Patton Boggs, was identified as that draft’s author. He is still registered to lobby for Adelson’s company at his new firm, Steptoe & Johnson.

An updated draft obtained by The Hill this week has similar legislative language to the earlier draft. The documents are both titled the Internet Gambling Control Act.

“Of course we have been working with members of Congress on the way the bill looks,” said Abboud of Las Vegas Sands. “There is a draft of the legislation that Darryl wrote, and there are 25 other drafts out there. … We have been 100 percent clear that we want to restore the Wire Act.”

The rush of lobbying on Internet gaming was triggered by a 2011 Justice Department finding that found the Wire Act only prohibited online betting on sports. That allowed states to legalize online gambling, which some are already doing.