Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson is one of the online poker world’s staunchest opponents and least-liked personalities; a strange place for a casino mogul to wind-up for sure. Now Adelson is throwing his political support and vast resources (Adelson is listed as the eighth richest person by Forbes Magazine) behind presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, reportedly donating $5 million to the candidate’s Super-Pac.
Adelson recently came out publicly against online poker after a number of his counterparts in the casino industry started moving from opponents to advocates after the seemingly inevitability of online poker becoming legalized in the US (in one form or another). Adelson was quoted by Global Gaming Business Magazine as saying, “…Unofficially, I am vehemently against it because I am convinced that the technology that would prevent kids from gambling isn’t enough,”
With the news that Adelson is throwing his support behind Gingrich, poker players and poker advocates should take a serious look at what the former Speaker of the House of Representatives stance on online gaming is, and precisely what influence Adelson’s $5 million donation (with a reported further $15 million being held in reserve) means.
While Adelson’s donation may very well buy him the ear of Gingrich on online poker, it would seem more likely that the two are politically aligned over Israel’s relationship with Palestine, which is admittedly a far more pressing topic than online poker! Still, Adelson’s influence and clout does not begin and end with Newt Gingrich, and he remains a major obstacle in the path of online poker legislation in the US.
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