Adelson’s Coalition Urges Colorado Not to Legalize Online Poker
The likelihood of lawmakers in Colorado considering online gaming legalization this session is quite high, but the National Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, an anti online gaming movement initiated and funded by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is determined to play spoil sport.
Recently, Adelson has taken to publishing opinion editorials in leading newspapers to warn the public against the dangers of Internet gambling. Wellington Webb, former mayor of Denver, recently published an op-ed in The Denver Post. Titled “Interne Gambling Will Kill Jobs in Colorado,” it alerted the residents of Colorado against online gambling legalization.
Published on January 9, the op-ed introduces Webb as the co-chair of the National Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. It warns residents that over 27,000 well-paid employees at land-based casinos in Colorado could lose their jobs if the state legalizes online gambling. The op-ed also contains a lot of inaccurate information that Adelson has attempted to establish as true, such as the idea that most US residents are not in favor of online gambling and that online gambling legalization will make gambling easily accessible to underage people.
Adelson had been proved wrong by the results of a Reason-Rupe survey recently conducted. According to this survey, two of every three US residents support the legalization of online poker. Besides, it has already been established are online gambling sites are better equipped than land-based casinos to combat underage gambling and problem gambling.
At a House Subcommittee hearing held last month, John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players’ Alliance, had stated that not a single case of underage individuals accessing the licensed and regulated gambling sites in New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada has been reported so far. He also pointed out that land casino properties owned by Sheldon Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands Corp, have done nothing about the large number of minors gambling and drinking on their casino floors.
Colorado lawmakers and industry representatives proposed an online poker bill, which failed to get any attention during the state’s previous legislative session. The bill might require amendments, but there is every chance of it being considered this legislative session.
In a statement made last year to The Denver Post, Representative Kevin Priola said that some lawmakers want Colorado to be “as close to the starting line” as possible in connection with making proper laws “because as soon as the gates open, I think there are only going to be a few states that are going to have enough scale to make it work.”
In his op-ed, 72-year-old Webb says that “poor and other vulnerable populations are at greater risk with easy access to online gambling sites.” He urged Colorado not to follow in the footsteps of Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, three US states that have already legalized and regulated several forms of online gambling, including poker.
Besides Webb, George Pataki, the former governor of New York, and Blanche Lincoln, the former senator of Arkansas, are also the co-chairs of Adelson’s newly launched National Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling.
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