NJ.com – Should Congress pass legislation that would outlaw online gambling across the country — thus quashing New Jersey’s recent move to legalize internet betting?
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) are sponsoring the measure that would reimpose an interpretation of the federal Wire Act, which says betting over the internet violated the law.
The U.S. Justice Department reversed course in 2011, leading Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey to legalize the practice. New Jersey instituted online gambling in November.
The senators said the Justice Department’s opinion was “yet another example” of the Obama administration “ignoring the law.”
“In 1999, South Carolina outlawed video poker and removed over 33,000 video poker machines from within its borders,” Graham said in a news release. “Now, because of the Obama Administration’s decision, virtually any cell phone or computer can again become a video poker machine. It’s simply not right.”
But the measure is expected to face opposition. New Jersey’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, said they would fight passage of the bill , which they claimed would push gambling back underground, where it could not be regulated.
“Blanket prohibition of internet gaming will empower black market operators at the expense of responsible states like New Jersey, which have invested in creating a secure internet gaming structure,” Menendez said in a news release.
