RAWA Congressional Hearing on December 9th

Home » Poker News » RAWA Congressional Hearing on December 9th

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015 | Written by Shane Larson

In October, Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz (photo) of Utah abandoned his bid to become the Speaker of the House, but since then he has doubled down on his goal of cracking down on online gambling. After months of no news on Chaffetz’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act bill, the Congressman then announced that he was ready to try and advance his legislation by holding a hearing of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee on December 9th to determine if there is a way forward. After the schedule was announced, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) immediately called for poker enthusiasts to counter any momentum by rallying against RAWA, with a PPA tweet stating:

“Anti-Internet #poker congressman to hold RAWA hearing in his Committee on 12/09. Will need everyone to make their voice heard #nopokerban”

What Is RAWA?

The Restoration of America’s Wire Act or RAWA is the name for House Bill HR 707. Jason Chaffetz is the primary sponsor of the bill, and it has 24 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. The bill seeks to make online gambling illegal under the terms of the Wire Act, a law that was signed into order in 1961. This legislation was intended to prevent wire fraud and money-laundering, but lawmakers had hoped that it could be used to stop online gambling. That hope was squashed by the Department of Justice, which issued a statement saying that the Wire Act only prohibits online sports betting. The statement prompted Chaffetz to introduce RAWA.

What Would Be RAWA’s Impact?

If the Restoration of America’s Wire Act were to pass, it would essentially prohibit states from passing laws that make it legal to gamble online. The bill specifically names online poker and online casino games as forms of Internet gambling but does not include daily fantasy sports betting among the prohibited online gambling forms. It’s unclear whether Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey would be permitted to continue to allow residents to participate in iGaming. There is a possibility that the law would apply only to states where iGaming is illegal at the time when the bill is signed.

The Current State of RAWA

Online poker players and representatives of the iGaming industry had hoped that the Restoration of America’s Wire Act had been abandoned up until the announcement regarding the December 9th hearing. Back in March 2015, Jason Chaffetz led a hearing of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee to explore whether or not to proceed with RAWA. Only five witnesses were called, but those asked to testify were largely against online gambling. Even though the hearing swayed toward those in favor of RAWA, only a couple of the witnesses seemed to resolutely support the passing of RAWA, and subsequently there were no moves to advance anti-gambling legislation after the proceedings. As PPA Executive Director John Pappas commented at the time:

“My feeling is we walked into a potentially really bad hearing and walked away with a lot of skepticism about the bill.”

The Future of RAWA

So what exactly will come from the December 9th meeting? While it’s possible that the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee could decide to vote to move the Restoration of America’s Wire Act ahead, most experts feel that the bill has very little chance of actually passing in the House. Even if Chaffetz could drum up enough support to get a successful vote on his bill, it’s unlikely that the Senate would pass it as it is currently written. Even Senator Marco Rubio, who had previously said he was against online gambling, is now saying he’s in favor of exemptions for online poker. Nevertheless, RAWA still enjoys the support of 24 cosponsors, and ahead of its December 9th hearing, poker players are encouraged to contact these Representative in their respective districts and make their thoughts known:

Rep. Gabbard, Tulsi
Rep. Smith, Lamar
Rep. Franks, Trent
Rep. King, Steve
Rep. Dent, Charles W.
Rep. Holding, George
Rep. Forbes, J. Randy
Rep. Gowdy, Trey
Rep. Wilson, Joe
Rep. Gohmert, Louie
Rep. Pierluisi, Pedro R.
Rep. Bishop, Rob [
Rep. Love, Mia B.
Rep. Ashford, Brad
Rep. Hartzler, Vicky
Rep. Ross, Dennis A.
Rep. Jones, Walter B., Jr.
Rep. Salmon, Matt
Rep. Webster, Daniel
Rep. Grothman, Glenn
Rep. Palazzo, Steven M.
Rep. Nugent, Richard B.
Rep. Harper, Gregg