After passing a resolution on Tuesday informing the U. S. Congress of its opposition to the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA), or HR 707, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ House Gaming Oversight Committee held a key hearing yesterday on the subject of online gaming. Throughout the run of the lengthy hearing, it became apparent that there are pro-gaming legislators that could make the Keystone State the fourth state to regulate and license online gaming and poker.
Once the perfunctory greetings and statements were made by the Chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, John Payne, the hearing opened up for testimony. On the agenda was a discussion of online gaming and poker regulation and, in particular, Pennsylvania House Bill 649 (HB 649, written by Payne) and, from the start, online gaming and poker advocates had to be uncomfortable with the opening witness. Andy Abboud, the spokesman for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (LVSC) and its owner, billionaire anti-gaming advocate Sheldon Adelson, opened up the hearing with a litany of untruths regarding the subject. Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove noted many of these over Twitter as the hearing proceeded.
After Grove picked off Abboud’s false statements about Amaya Gaming, the owners of PokerStars, being charged with tax evasion in Italy and denied a license in New Jersey, Abboud claimed that the Wire Act was needed to “shut down” offshore sites. This is untrue because there are already other laws that handle such a situation (UIGEA, the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA), etc.). Abboud even performed his favorite parlor trick – taking his cellphone out to emphasize that “a casino can be in your hand” – so many times that Payne said after Abboud was searching again for his phone, “Andy, I got the cellphone idea.”
Although hell-bent on telling the truth regarding online gaming and poker, Abboud couldn’t bring himself to that same truth-telling when it came to the LVSC. The LVSC, the owners of several casinos in Pennsylvania, have been fined on multiple occasions for underage drinking and gambling on their properties. Abboud refused to answer Representative Tina Davis’ questions about specifics on those fines and, when challenged on the fact that the LVSC properties in Nevada offer mobile gaming options but they oppose online gaming, Abboud could only reply, “If I had more time, I would explain that.” Finally, Abboud was exposed on the geolocation front by admitting that it works because the LVSC can “keep online gaming within the four walls of the Venetian.”
After the comedy to open the hearing, the adults took over the discussion. Technical experts from the iGaming security company GLI and the geolocation company GeoComply stepped up to demonstrate how their products prevent underage and out-of-state gaming. The GLI witness compared their online gaming and poker fraud controls to those of major banks, calling them “bulletproof.”
GeoComply was arguably the star of the show, however. Using real-time information, GeoComply’s Lindsay Slater demonstrated to the committee how their software was working in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware to prevent anyone from outside of those states from playing on the regulated sites. At one moment, Slater targeted a Starbucks in New Jersey and showed that two players were playing in the café at that moment, even making the point that they were playing on opposite sides of the business and completely unaware of each other. Slater also gained points when she demonstrated the complexity of the geolocation software, stating that it uses more than 350 checks to verify a person’s location.
While the hearing was positive, no vote was taken on HB 649; a second hearing in front of the same committee next month may move the bill forward. At this time, however, the Pennsylvania Senate doesn’t have any legislation regarding the subject. Last year, State Senator Edwin “Ted” Erickson introduced a bill but he hasn’t resurrected it for the 2015 session.
With the foot-dragging continuing in California, Pennsylvania has moved ahead as the state most likely to regulate online gaming and poker (potentially this year) and, with bills like HB 649 in the pipeline, it could come true.
