Adelson anti-online gambling drive gathers momentum

PR and publicity people working on land gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson’s plan to crush online gambling in the United States through the newly formed and Las Vegas Sands-funded Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling have been busy this week arranging for CSIG frontman and former New York governor George Pataki’s appearance on Bloomberg TV.

Pataki appeared on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” program to rather patronisingly push the Adelson line that online gambling is “a terrible idea” that could severely harm the younger generation who have yet to learn limits when controlling their behaviour.

Speaking to television hosts Emily Chang and Stephanie Ruhle, Pataki stayed on the Adelson campaign theme that online gambling represents risks of money laundering, even trotting out yet again the September 2013 FBI letter written by Deputy Assistant Director J. Britt Johnson to a Congressman, making unsubstantiated claims that online gambling could potentially be used to launder money by terrorist organisations.

To be fair, that letter points to land gambling establishments also presenting a risk, and ironically in August last year, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands paid $47.4 million to settle a federal money-laundering investigation and avoid criminal charges.

That involved high-rolling land casino action between 2006 and 2007 by Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon, who was linked to the international drug industry, and allegedly wagered $84 million through Adelson’s property.

Pataki told Bloomberg TV: “The FBI has said definitively that sophisticated technologies can be employed by terrorist groups and criminal organizations to move money undetected, conceal their physical locations, and entangle unwitting online players.

“The FBI’s warning is part of a growing body of evidence that demonstrates how dangerous the expansion of Internet gambling will be.”

Calling for federal intervention, Pataki said that Congress needs to be responsible in protecting American families and “innocent bystanders” caught up in criminal schemes online, and that it must “…restore the long-standing federal ban on all forms of Internet gambling.”

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