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Published: 27th March 2014 Written by Poker News
Updated: 2nd December 2023

Restoration of America's Wire ActLindsey Graham introduced a new bill to congress the Restoration of America’s Wire Act which will prohibits all forms of Internet gambling and includes online poker.

The bill was introduced to congress on Wednesday and was backed by nine state representatives. If passed the bill will make any forms of betting online, illegal under federal law.

Backed by Sheldon Adelson, billionaire Las Vegas Sands Casino CEO, in his War on Online Poker and online gambling.

Political analysts have predicted that the bill will most probably not even be up for voting in 2014.

The Democratic Governors Association claims that if the law were to be passed it would also affect the lottery which would lose $20 billion in states revenue.

Restoration of America’s Wire Act

The original Wire Act of 1961 was made clearer on December 2011 when the court ruled that the law applied to sports betting and not all forms of gambling online.

Online poker was since approved in a state-by-state format which regulated and taxed the game legally in three states: Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware.

CEO of Las Vegas Sands, Sheldon Adelson has since done whatever it takes to ban all forms of gambling online as it is a major threat to his chain of land-based casinos. Adelson has launched and funded the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling which aims to promote the dangers of internet gambling.

His latest efforts to back the Restoration of America’s Wire Act and no doubt fund the bill introduced by ally in congress Lindsey Graham who is up for re-election as the senator of South Carolina.

Adelson is known for donating larges sums of money in politics and estimated to have spent more than $93 million on backing candidates in the 2012 election.

The Restoration of America’s Wire Act introduced by Lindsey Graham has been amended to include all forms of online gambling.


Restoration of America’s Wire Act


To restore long-standing United States policy that the Wire Act prohibits all forms of Internet gambling, and for other purposes.

Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. LEE, Ms. AYOTTE , and Mrs. FEINSTEIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on

A BILL

To restore long-standing United States policy that the Wire Act prohibits all forms of Internet gambling, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restoration of America’s Wire Act’’.

SEC. 2. WIRE ACT CLARIFICATION.

Section 1084 of title 18, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) by striking ‘‘bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest,’’ and inserting ‘‘any bet or wager, or information assisting in the placing of any bet or wager,’’;
(B) by striking ‘‘result of bets or wagers’’ and inserting ‘‘result of any bet or wager’’; and
(C) by striking ‘‘placing of bets or wagers’’ and inserting ‘‘placing of any bet or wager’’;

and

(2) by striking subsection (e) and inserting the following: ‘‘(e) As used in this section—

‘‘(1) the term ‘bet or wager’ does not include any activities set forth in section 5362(1)(E) of title 31;
‘‘(2) the term ‘State’ means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States;
‘‘(3) the term ‘uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of any bet or wager’ includes any transmission over the Internet carried interstate or in foreign commerce, incidentally or otherwise; and
‘‘(4) the term ‘wire communication’ has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153).’’.

SEC. 3. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed—

(1) to preempt any State law prohibiting gambling; or
(2) to alter, limit, or extend—
(A) the relationship between the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 (15 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.) and other Federal laws in effect on the date of enactment of this Act;
(B) the ability of a State licensed lottery retailer to make in-person, computer-generated retail lottery sales under applicable Federal and State laws in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act; or
(C) the relationship between Federal laws and State charitable gaming laws in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/214721674/Restoration-of-America-s-Wire-Act