Gore against online gambling ban

By Tony Batt

July 3, 2000 Web posted at: 11:43 AM EDT (1543 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Las Vegas Review Journal) -- Vice President Al Gore objects to legislation in Congress to ban gambling over the Internet, and his opposition could dim prospects for the bill's passage this year.

Vice President Gore is against a ban on Internet gambling

Gore's concerns echo those expressed repeatedly by the Justice Department -- that the bill to prohibit online casinos contains loopholes that could lead to more wagering in the long run.

"The vice president supports efforts to limit the growth of Internet gambling, but he is concerned that exemptions in the bill could actually expand gambling," Gore campaign spokesman Alejandro Cabrera said.

For example, Cabrera said, an exemption for horse racing could make it legal to make bets across state lines.

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Gore -- the presumptive Democratic nominee for president -- has not spoken publicly about Internet gambling, and he does not appear to have played a direct role in its consideration on Capitol Hill.

But lawmakers and gambling lobbyists see the shadow of the presidential campaign hovering over the issue. Their theory is that Gore does not want Congress to pass any legislation that might be perceived by voters as regulating the Internet economy, and that includes a gambling prohibition.

The White House has not taken an official position on the proposed ban. But Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin DiGregory, to date the Clinton administration's voice on the Internet gambling ban, has intensified his criticism this year in testifying before House committees.

DiGregory has advised lawmakers to modify the bill so that it is "technologically neutral" and does not target the Internet.

DiGregory is part of an "e-commerce working group" that includes staff members from the White House, the departments of Justice and Commerce and other agencies formulating administration positions on Internet issues, according to Justice Department spokeswoman Gretchen Michael.

Congress still may pass an Internet gambling ban this year, but prospects have declined since the Senate approved its version of the bill last November. Support for the measure by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., was so overwhelming that it passed by voice vote.

A delay caused by the House Commerce Committee expired last month, and sponsor Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., says he will push for speedy action on the floor. The House and Senate bills do not differ greatly, so a compromise might be quickly forged.

But the mood among those who support an Internet gambling ban is increasingly pessimistic.

"To save it, the (House) leadership has to step in," said Wayne Mehl, a lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association.

Supporters of the ban also find it unsettling that Tony Podesta, the brother of White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, works for a Washington lobbying firm that represents the Interactive Gaming Council. The council is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based trade association whose members include offshore Internet gambling companies.

Missi Tessier, a principal of the Podesta firm, said its work has included lobbying the House Judiciary Committee, which nonetheless voted 21-8 on April 6 to pass Goodlatte's Internet gambling ban.

Backers of the Internet gambling bill take exception to the criticism it would expand gambling.

"I strongly disagree with the Justice Department. We are not expanding gambling," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., the leading Democratic sponsor of the Senate bill. "We are simply grandfathering in a closed-loop system (for horse racing, dog racing and jai alai) that already is legal."

"The Justice Department is elevating form over substance," said John Shelk, a vice president of the American Gaming Association. "They say they too are opposed to Internet gaming, but then get bogged down in legal minutiae on how to get to a ban."

The Clinton administration's reluctance to tamper with the Internet economy is a longstanding policy that does not begin or end with gambling.

It goes back to when the White House rebuffed governors' grumbling about the loss of state revenues to purchases on the Internet. The administration cites the Internet as a huge factor in the prosperity of the Clinton years, and one of Gore's campaign themes is continuing the good economic times.

"We are absolutely committed to making sure that the Internet works for business and consumers and do not want to do anything to diminish the effects that it can have for our economy," Gregory Baer, assistant treasury secretary for financial institutions, told the House Banking and Financial Services Committee on June 20.

There are 52 countries that sanction Internet gambling, said Sue Schneider, publisher of Interactive Gaming News in St. Charles, Mo., and a longtime advocate of online gaming. She subscribes to a widely held view that it's only a matter of time before mainstream gaming companies in Nevada and the rest of the United States plunge into the Internet market.

"I know land-based casinos in Nevada are watching what is happening in the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa where casinos are already involved (in the Internet gambling market)," she said.

Bryan has warned that Congress must enact a ban this year to prevent his state's casinos from expanding onto the World Wide Web.

But even if the Internet gambling ban does not pass, federal law still prohibits gambling "via wire communications" across state lines. Hence, Internet gambling conducted totally within the state of Nevada might be legal, but receiving online wagers in Las Vegas from Los Angeles might not.

Federal law is still murky enough to keep legitimate gaming operators off the Internet, Shelk said.

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