During his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Jeff Sessions promised that as attorney general he would “revisit” a 2011 Justice Department memo that interpreted the Wire Act of 1961 as applying only to sports betting, which opened the door to state-regulated online gambling. The implication was that Sessions might revert to the department’s earlier position on the statute, which implausibly read it as banning all forms of internet-assisted betting, even those permitted by state law.

Although Sessions’ comments set off alarm bells among online poker fans and other supporters of legalization, it’s not clear how serious he is about reversing the DOJ’s position. The Alabama senator said he was “shocked” by the 2011 memo and “criticized it.” But it was obvious he had not read it, and there seems to be no public record of his opposition to it.

Sessions was responding to a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), sponsor of a bill that would amend the Wire Act to ban all online gambling. The bill, which is backed by Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, who is keen to wipe out online competition with his casinos, is called the Restoration of America’s Wire Act. But it does not “restore” anything; it rewrites the 1961 law by excising its reference to sports betting and inserting language about the internet.

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