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President-elect Donald Trump is a well-known former Atlantic City casino owner, so his return to the White House would appear to be bad news for legislation seeking to regulate online sports betting and good news for an industry opposed to federal intervention.
“I really don’t think the federalization of gaming is going to happen under Trump’s administration,” said Bill Pascrell III, a lobbyist with Princeton Public Affairs Group.
Speaking on an industry webinar, Pascrell said he was meeting with the Trump transition team on Thursday (November 21) in Washington, D.C. for talks on issues of concern to the gaming industry.
He attributed a likely lack of interest in new policies for the gaming industry to other Trump administration priorities, such as border security and “dealing with, in his own way,” the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Donald Trump was a casino owner. He owned three casinos,” Pascrell said. “I think they are looking to build relationships with the industry.”
Trump received a casino license from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1982 but left the Atlantic City casino industry in 2009 after multiple bankruptcies.
The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1984, was imploded in February 2021. The resort was the final property to bear Trump’s name in Atlantic City. The Trump Taj Mahal was renamed the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and underwent a $500m renovation, while the Trump Marina is now called the Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
Pascrell participated in a webinar organized by Gaming Americas on Wednesday (November 20) along with Jeremy Kleiman, a gaming attorney with Saiber, and Martin Lycka, senior vice president for American regulatory affairs and responsible gaming at Entain.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that the incoming Trump administration will have other fish to fry than gambling,” Lycka said.
“If it makes the priority list, it is near the bottom.”
During the first Trump administration, the U.S. gaming industry was caught off guard when the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on January 14, 2019 published an opinion reversing its prior position on the Wire Act of 1961 and stating that it considered the law applied to all interstate gambling transmissions, not just sports betting.
The OLC opinion overrode a 2011 opinion issued by the Obama administration that allowed states to regulate online casino and lottery games and essentially restored the position held by the DOJ under previous administrations that all internet gambling was prohibited under federal law.
The 2019 OLC opinion was put to one side by a federal court in New Hampshire a few months later after a legal challenge brought by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the decision on January 20, 2021, the day of President Biden’s inauguration.
The Biden administration declined to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Sheldon Adelson was a big supporter of Donald Trump in 2021, who passed away a few years later while Trump was in office,” Pascrell said of the former boss of Las Vegas Sands who funded a multi-year lobbying campaign to abolish online gambling in the United States.
“Sheldon was the main reason Trump did what he did with the reinterpretation of the Wire Act,” Pascrell said.
“I’m a massive supporter of online gaming and sports betting but I don’t believe the Trump administration is really looking to go back and peel back the Wire Act.”
Both Pascrell and Lycka also said they believed that the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet (SAFE Bet) Act, which was filed in September in the House by Representative Paul Tonko of New York and in the Senate by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both Democrats, would go nowhere with Republicans taking control of both chambers of Congress in January.
Tonko made it clear at a press conference introducing the SAFE Bet Act that he did not expect his legislation to go anywhere during the lame-duck session following the November 5 election, but he planned to refile his measure when a new Congress is sworn in next year.
Tonko previously introduced a bill in February 2023 that would have banned all advertising of sports betting.
Pascrell reminded attendees that Tonko and his fellow Democrats will be in the minority, although the margins are very close, and the gaming industry was not concerned about the bills because they are not likely to go anywhere.
“Martin and I met with Tonko,” Pascrell said he had met with Tonko who “cares about mental health and didn’t know a lot at the time about gaming. He’s getting educated. He attended a few conferences … he then dialed his bill back. It’s still not a great bill, but it’s better than it was.”
According to the SAFE Bet Act, state regulators would have to ensure that all advertising for sports betting is prohibited between the hours of 8am and 10pm, as well as during live sporting events. The bill also prohibits all in-play wagers and prop bets on college and amateur athletes, as well as establishes a national self-exclusion list.
“The advertising ban is not complete, although I am against any advert ban because I only think it helps the black market,” Pascrell said. “He’s also got prop bet bans in there and affordability checks. But thankfully we have a little bit more time because it’s highly unlikely that [Republican House] Speaker Mike Johnson is going to post Tonko’s bill.”
Incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is also unlikely to call Blumenthal’s version of the bill up for a vote when the 119th Congress convenes on January 3.
“I’ve said before, the federal government can barely run a one-car funeral,” Pascrell said. “They should not be involved in the gaming industry. Automobile insurance and gaming have been left to the states. I hope it stays that way.”
