Senator Lindsey Graham RAWA's bill banning online lottery

Senior United States Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, just realized the big mistake he made; it seems that the Senator is not aware of the real situation. His lack of knowledge about online gambling is, without doubt, one major problem for an industry as lucrative as the online gambling. South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, one of Sheldon Adelson’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) main supporters in the Senate, is now trying to sell us another story. During an interview, the Senator made a few statements about banning online gambling; the political figure said that he never meant to illegalize online lottery; but his support to RAWA’s campaign says otherwise as the bill is going to ban any online gaming product, including lottery sales.

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, introduced a bill similar to H.R. 707, the one introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R – Utah). Both bills are trying to make changes on RAW’s language, in a very rigorous way, using it against any online bet or wager. This would include any form of online gambling such as poker rooms, casino games and, of course, online lotteries sales. The Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) does not include charitable forms of online gambling as well as online horseracing wagering; Fantasy Sports, even when it is indeed another form of online betting service, is under the arms of the UIGEA (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006).

State Lottery is becoming one of the most relevant gaming products in the United States; the Act is very specific on some terms, such as lottery methods of sales: “Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to alter, limit, or extend 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”. So even when lottery tickets are generated by computers, the Act only sees in-person retail lottery ticket sales, which will allow State Lotteries to get away with online sales. State Lotteries are pushing the envelope in the US, now more than ever as the online gambling industry is opening new doors; so if retail lottery ticket sales made online can get any carve-out in the several online bills, only online poker rooms as well as online casinos, will be banned.