by David Purdum, USBETS
Former New Jersey state Senator Ray Lesniak — in many respects the founding father of the movement that has led to the expansion of legal, regulated sports betting well beyond Nevada’s borders — recently received 76 pages worth of documentation in response to his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made in February.
Lesniak sought records of communication from and with the U.S. Attorney General’s office regarding The Wire Act of 1961, and more specifically a document released in January 2019 titled “Reconsidering Whether the Wire Act Applies to Non-Sports Gambling.”
That’s the Opinion that upended a 2011 Department of Justice Opinion that the act only applies to sports betting. The new Opinion mirrored wealthy Republican donor and Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s sentiments.
While Lesniak didn’t get what he sought — evidence that online gambling foe Adelson directed the change in policy — the documents reveal multiple efforts to try to persuade the federal government to reverse its 2011 position, and even more efforts to seek to retain that new status quo.
It also showed that Adelson has kindred spirits among some leading Democrats on Capitol Hill.
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