SURPRISING SUPPORT FOR ONLINE GAMBLING

7 March 2008

Lobbying expenditure shows some interesting trends


According to a report from the Cape Cod Media group, at least twenty organisations have spent substantially in order to lobby in support of US online gambling issues, and the list has some surprising names on it. Lobby firms in the US are mandated to disclose the amounts and causes for which they are lobbying.

The report says that some of the companies had already spent $2.65 million on Internet gambling during the first six months of 2007. Added to amounts declared by other organisations since then (see previous InfoPowa reports) it makes for impressive sums of money.

After discussing Barney Frank's Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Bill and other supportive legislative proposals in the United States, the article goes on to provide a list of some of the companies greasing the political wheels on Capitol Hill.

As previously reported, the American Gaming Association, a trade body for US land casino companies, spent $1.7 million in 2007 lobbying for a study of online gambling and the implications for its regulation and taxing in the United States, and the Washington-based pressure group Poker Players' Alliance spent $900 000 on lobbying for the legalisation of online poker through last year.

One interesting entry on the list will surprise many readers, given its hostile attitude toward the use of credit cards in online gambling transactions in the past. Visa USA was among the processing companies that had declared $480 000 in lobbying budgets in support of the Frank Bill in the first half of 2007.

Not so surprising is the inclusion of online gambling group Party Gaming which at the half year 2007 mark had spent $440 000, along with the Interactive Gaming Council (a trade association for online gambling companies) at $320 000. GTech Corp. (a gaming technology company based in Providence, R.I.) had spent $120 000 up to mid-year 2007 along with a US race courses owner Magna Entertainment ($60 000) and the giant land casino group Harrah's ($100 000)

Updating the numbers to embrace the whole of year 2007 has been carried out courtesy of the Centre for Responsive Politics at
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/indusclient.asp?code=N07&year=2007.

The casinos and gambling industry is recorded as having spent a total (mostly from tribal gambling enterprises) of $22 211 500 - a mere drop in the ocean compared to the $357 384 680 contributed to US politics by the big spending US Chamber of Commerce.

Familiar names on the list include:

Antigua Gaming Association: $320 000
GTech: $220 000
Harrah's: $280 000
Interactive Gaming Council: $980 000
IGT: $280 000
Magna: $120 000
Party Gaming: $660 000
Sportingbet: $140 000
WPT: $20 000

At a total of $2.06 billion for 2007, the casino and gambling lobbying sector lagged behind previous years, where in 2005 expenditure of this nature was $2.45 billion and in 2006, when it reached $2.66 billion.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa