One of Sheldon Adelson’s political playthings is at it again. Senator Lindsey Graham plans to use the confirmation hearing of William Barr, the Attorney General nominee, to push for a 2019 online gambling ban. According to a report, the 2011 Department of Justice (DOJ) opinion that opened the door for states to legalize online gambling will be one of the first things Graham asks nominee Bill Barr to address. The Senator has indicated that he would seek an updated written or verbal stance from Barr on the 1961 Wire Act. Using the bulk of his time to question an Attorney…

Luminescent signboards flashed across the streets and alleyways as colossal skyscrapers soared upwards to speak with the heavens. The jingle of coins and the rumbling of roulette wheels approached the ear from all directions. Inside, you could hear the flamboyant cheers of players soaked in adrenaline-filled mirth. Drinks poured in one glass at a time as the many LCD screens cast a depiction of the latest baseball game happening halfway across the country. A trip to Las Vegas is the idyllic fantasy of every bachelor in the free world, but not everyone can afford the expensive and timetaking trips miles…

Not everyone in the Pennsylvania legislature is on board with the idea of legal online gambling. That became abundantly clear at last week’s joint hearing of the House Gaming Oversight Committee and the Senate Community Economic & Recreational Development Committee. Now there’s even a bill to make online gambling explicitly illegal in the state. Five Republicans in the PA House of Representatives made their opposition to online gambling crystal clear. They introduced a bill, HB 801, that would prohibit and criminalize online gambling in the Keystone State. That came just a few days after the iGaming hearing. Per the legislation,…

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has announced his intention to outlaw online gambling in the Southeast Asian country. Duterte revealed the plans while presenting a budget for 2017, but did not place a timescale on when the ban would come into effect. According to local media outlet Inquirer, Duterte said online gaming companies “have no use” in the Philippines. “I am ordering the closure of all online gaming (firms); all of them,” Duterte said. The declaration comes after Duterte in August cancelled an operator’s 13-year monopoly on gambling in licensed cafes, citing the fact that the country has no proper way…

Would $20 million be enough to buy enough U.S. Senators to get a law passed before the New Year that will benefit your business interests? Apparently Las Vegas Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson thinks so. He’s become a human ATM machine for the Republican Party this year, having donated $100 million to Republican causes. This includes the $20 million he pledged on September 20th of this year to the Senate Leadership Fund, a Super PAC created to elect Republican candidates to the U.S. Senate. What does Adelson want for buying Senators and members of Congress? He wants federal legislation to ban…

As the world goes crazy over Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game, Saudi Arabia’s top religious body has renewed a 2001 ruling banning the Pokémon franchise as un-Islamic, saying it promotes gambling and Darwin’s theory of evolution. The 15-year-old ban on the Pokémon game has been revived, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said on the website of the General Presidency for Scholarly Research and Ifta, Arab News reported on Wednesday. The old fatwa dealt with the Pokémon card game, however Sheikh Saleh Al-Fozan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said it is no different…