Internet gambling: Holder's DOJ law reinterpretation benefits Obama's home state, Dem donors

Eric Holder's Department of Justice--without consulting Congress (or anyone, I guess)--reinterpreted a 50 year-old law at the request of two spending addicted blue states, New York and Illinois.

Stephen DeMaura president of Americans for Job Security is not pleased by this move. "The circumstances surrounding this decision - especially Illinois' readiness to take action - raise troubling questions about the Justice Department's decision-making process," he said in a statement. DeMaura added, "Now, Illinois is looking to become a global internet gambling hub, sending millions of dollars into the state's coffers and opening the floodgates so anyone with an internet connection can gamble online."

It gets worse.

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) wants to set up a Division of Internet Gaming. Two months ago Illinois became the first state to offer online lottery sales. Cullerton wants to get a leg up on the other states so Illinois can dominate internet gambling.

Besides President Obama's home state, who else benefits from Holder's maneuver?

The PJ Tatler tells us:

Among those beneficiaries are Scientific Games and GTech. Shares of both companies jumped dramatically on the news of the Justice Department's reinterpretation. According to Shay Sayre and Cynthia King's book Entertainment and Society: Influences, Impacts and Innovations, GTech is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lottomatic, a foreign company that holds the license for Italy's national lottery. GTech and Lottomatic together have captured 63 percent of the world's lottery business. In the book, Sayre and King write that GTech’s history is riddled with controversy, including an attempt to bribe British billionaire Richard Branson. These are .0001 percenters at the heart of this story.

GTech and Scientific Games both have strong connections to the Democratic Party, according to Federal Election Commission records. Scientific Games' chairman is Lorne Weil. According to the FEC, Weil has given more than $22,500 to political campaigns and committees since 2008, with over 80% of that sum going to Democrats. Jaymin Patel is president and CEO of GTech. Patel has donated $9,300 since 2008, with over 90% of his generosity going toward Democrats.

Holder's decision is a gift that will keep on giving--but it will be paid for by bettors, the majority of whom will of course be unlucky.

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