Sunday September 1,2013 : NEW HAMPSHIRE POLITICIAN WANTS CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON INTERNET GAMBLING
Republican Rep. Kelly Ayotte wants the Wire Act back.
The US Department of Justice's December 2011 policy about-turn on the Wire Act – declaring that it did not apply to non-sports betting activity – surfaced again at the weekend in an op-ed article in the Nashua Telegraph by Andrew Hemingway, director of the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Institute.
Hemingway made much of the New Hampshire Legislature's rejection of Gov. Maggie Hassan's land gambling expansion plans, and warned that the trend toward legalised online gambling at state levels is equally dangerous, and "….gives Gov. Hassan a new path to bring casino-style gambling to New Hampshire and repair the holes left in her budget by the Legislature’s refusal to approve a brick-and-mortar casino."
Advocating that the Wire Act be reinstated with its full powers through a federal initiative in the US Congress, Hemingway notes that Republican state Rep. Kelly Ayotte is playing a leading role in such a drive, and was an active speaker in the hearing last month of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance
Ayotte raised the usual slew of weakly-informed objections to the legalization and licensing of online gambling: the dangers of underage, problem and unfair gambling; moral objections to states plugging budget holes with funds from lotteries and online gaming, and money laundering.
Hemingway nails his colours firmly to the anti-gambling mast when he concludes by hoping that the New Hampshire Legislature continues to block the governor's gambling initiatives.
He also wants Congress to halt "….the DOJ’s runaway legislating on the fly before more revenue-hungry blue states use expanded gambling as a quick fix to fill their coffers."