Sheldon Adelson Tries To Discourage Online Gambling

It is the height of irony that Sheldon Adelson would be trying to encourage anyone not to gamble. The man has made his entire fortune on the backs of gamblers. However, that is of course where the answer rests. He wants to protect his business interests from outside competition. Thus, he will say whatever he has to in order to protect his land-based casinos in Las Vegas. 

Adelson has a Political Action Committee (PAC) that targets the online casino industry in any way that it can. It is called the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) and it has been around in operation since approximately 2011. That was when the State Department gave a legal interpretation of the Wire Act that opened up the possibility for states to legalize online gambling within their borders if they opted to do so. The CSIG obviously was not pleased with this. 

Blache Lincoln is the latest name to get her time in the sun when it comes to representing the views of the CSIG. She was hired by Adelson to push his agenda of going after the online gambling operations. She in particular has pushed the angle that the online casinos are not doing enough to put a stop to the issue of problem gambling. She has gone on to testify that advertisements for gaming operations have appeared on webpages such as "Twelve Ways to Stop Gambling Addiction". 

These are the kind of things that the group is trying to use to discourage states from opening up their laws to allow for online casinos. They believe that by mudding up the waters even just a little they can actually make it easier to win the battles that they have been waging. 

The irony that the man behind some of the biggest casinos in the United States would be the one to fund such a group is something that the CSIG has to deal with on a regular basis. It doesn't matter how big the names are that they hire to help their cause, at the end of the day this is really about protecting business interests.