Obama Still Good for Online Gambling?

December 29, 2008

It would seem that those that are excited about President Elect Barack Obama coming into office so that online gambling can be legalized might want to rethink that excitement. Obama recently announced that he would be appointing Eric Holder to the position of Attorney General of the United States, which means legalizing online gambling might not be the hop, skip and a jump that it was previously thought to be.

Holder is very well qualified to hold the position; there is no doubt about that. However, he also has ties to lobbyists that are very clear, and very vehement about the fact that online gambling needs to stay illegal. He has close ties to these representatives of the National Football League and has been extremely sympathetic to the anti online gambling cause.

Holder is also connected to William Wichterman, who was one of the main people behind the push to get the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed. Wichterman was working on behalf of the NFL at that point, which made many people conscious of the clear cut case for conflict of interest � but the Bush Administration made it disappear.

Wichterman was also involved with the Department of Justice in getting online gambling made illegal, and many say that this alone is more than enough reason to doubt that they will be quick to get online gambling legalized again. At this point, those that voted for Obama based on the idea that he would make online gambling legal must take heart in that he never actually said that he would, but has never said he wouldn�t either.







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