Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson has made it no secret that he hates internet gaming and plans to do everything in his power to stop it. He even formed the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling and has pledged to throw billions of dollars at the cause. And while his arguments against online gaming continue to be laughable, at best, he did get a vote of confidence from fellow casino magnate Steve Wynn.
Fortunately, the rest of the world isn’t taking Adelson’s anti-online poker crusade lying down. The American Gaming Association and MGM Resorts International recently launched the Coalition for Consumer and Online Protection as an answer to Adelson’s group.
The Coalition for Consumer and Online Protection are taking their opposition very seriously because they’ve launched a three-week, $250,000 ad campaign. The campaign, which is being carried out online and through print, is focused on going against any potential federal online gaming ban.
The new coalition has also hired some powerful allies such as former Ohio Rep. Mike Oxley (also former Financial Services Committee chairman), former California Rep. Mary Bono, top Democratic operative Jim Messina, and Kristen Hawn of Granite Integrated Strategies. Additionally, they hired North Star Opinion Research to conduct a recent poll, which showed that 33 percent of the voters “strongly” oppose banning online gaming, versus 22 percent that “strongly” support the ban.
It can’t be stressed enough how serious of a threat Adelson is to expanded online gaming, even though many of his arguments are hypocritical and full of holes. Forbes estimates that Adelson is worth $39 billion, which means that he has more than enough money to lobby congressmen and keep pushing his agenda. Given this fact, it’s definitely nice to have a couple of big entities like the AGA and MGM putting their support and money behind legalizing and regulating online poker in more states. Hopefully, the Coalition for Consumer and Online Protection can continue a trend of making Adelson look foolish while pushing the pro-internet gaming agenda.