RAWA dead and buried for 2014

The United States Congress is in the throes of debating a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. As bills go it’s a pretty big one (in more ways than one).

If it passes, congress can clear the decks on lingering spending issues and fund commitments through September 2015. If it doesn’t pass, and in the absence of a stop gap bill, the government will shutdown Thursday (that’s today!).

Either way…one thing’s for certain. The bill will contain no provision for RAWA, meaning it’s pretty much dead and buried for 2014.

RAWA… Restoration of America’s Wire Act

The Restoration of America’s Wire Act S.2159 and its companion House legislation H.R. 4301 (identical), both commonly known as RAWA were introduced to to congress earlier this year. It’s a key part of Sheldon Adelson’s multi-pronged attempt to ban online gambling across America.

RAWA’s naming is a little misleading. It’s more an amendment than a restoration. The Wire Act (1961) is still very much in place and doesn’t therefore require restoration. But the problem for the anti-net gambling lobby is that (according to the US Department of Justice) it doesn’t prohibit all forms of interstate gambling – only sports betting.

That it was ever intended to apply to Internet gambling generally was always going to be unlikely unless the legislature had remarkable foresight back in 1961 when it was enacted.

The intent of RAWA, according to the bill’s web page, is to:

Amend provisions of the federal criminal code, commonly known as the Wire Act, to provide that the prohibition against transmission of wagering information shall apply to any bet or wager, or information assisting in the placing of any bet or wager (thus making such prohibition applicable to all types of gambling activities, including Internet gambling)

RAWA’s been bouncing around Washington since it’s introduction in March but hasn’t quite found the support needed to become law.

Now it seems that when a proposed law doesn’t have enough support on its own merits, there is another way to slip it through the cracks. Attach it to another piece of legislation.

Preferably that other piece of legislation should:

contain provisions crucial to the functioning of government…ie funding; and
be extremely long and complicated…meaning peripheral provisions won’t really be scrutinized, if read at all; and
be considered must-pass legislation; and ideally
have an urgent deadline.

Enter the omnibus bill.

Reports emerged last week that Adelson’s last ditch effort to get a ban over the line for 2014 involved leaning on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to get a RAWA provision included in the omnibus bill.

The omnibus bill

Omnibus bill is a general term for a proposed law covering a number of diverse or unrelated topics. A single vote decides the fate of all measures contained within it.

This particular one approves $1.1 trillion in funding for various government measures (the ‘must-pass’ component of the bill), as well as a long list of provisions bolted on to satisfy various lobbying interests. At last count, the bill was 1,774 pages, having grown 170 pages overnight. Definitely ticks the box on limited scrutiny for the bolt-on provisions. As for urgency; a failure to pass, only days after being introduced, could mean a government shut down.

Absent from those 1,774 pages is any provision related to RAWA, meaning it is pretty much dead for 2014. As Harry Read told journalists this week,

“If we can’t get it into the omnibus, it won’t be in anything,”

Heading into 2015

Regulated intrastate online gambling is a reality in Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada (poker only) and there’s a long list of states looking to join the game. The more state based support there is for regulation, the harder it will become for any federal prohibition to become law.

The window is closing for the anti-online gambling lobby. But it is a pretty persistent lobby so no doubt their efforts will continue into 2015.