abramof and online gambling???

[Ali shmali]

I constantly hear references to abramof when it comes to the legislation on poker. What is the connection here? It seems it has something to do with last year.

[jwlam]

I think a similar bill was presented last year and Abramoff, thanks to connections within the gaming industry, successfully got it shot down.

[IronDragon1]

Jack Abramoff was a lobbyist for elottery-a company which helps governments sell lottery tickets on the internet-and wanted to block the Internet Gambling Prohibition act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Gambling_Prohibition_Act) which was passed by the Senate but died in the house during the 106th congress.

He basically paid a bunch of people money to oppose the bill. He would be convicted of Grossly overcharging (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff_Indian_lobbying_scandal) tribal gaming interests while representing them in 1995.

His name is brought up to remindd people of his role in defeating the time the last time and to try to paint supporters of this bill as fighting corrupt lobbyists.

[sweetjazz]

But it should be pointed out by our side that the interest group which Abramoff represented when trying to block the IGPA was appeased in this bill through the exception for online lotteries.

In other words, the House has passed a bill which has been made weaker by appeasing the interests represented by the Abramoffs of the political scene. I think it is really important that we try to convey to the public that this legislation is filled with lobbyist influence and use the Abramoff scandal against the people who support this legislation.

This really is another example of business as usual in Washington, and there is a fair amount of public sentiment against the practices in Washington. We need to try to use this in our favor.

[Ignignokt]

Abramoff was a convenient villain to make this bill seem even more righteous.