• Join Us
  • Follow Us
Poker News

New Gingrich Receives $10m from Sheldon Adelson

Written By: PokerNet.com | January 25, 2012 | Posted In Poker News

American Casino and Hotel magnate Sheldon Adelson, currently ranked the 8th welathiest American and 16th wealthiest person in the world has given an additional $5 million (totalling $10 million) to a super Political Action Committee for GOP (Grand Old Party/Republican Party) presidential candidate.

The recent monetary injection into Gingrich’s campaign has been brought on by a history of friendship and patronage of the billionaire’s Las Vegas properties, according to the New York Times.

Gingrich has been pushing policy against online poker, a view that is shared with his friend Sheldon Adelson, hence further reasoning behind the generous donation. Despite this large sum of money, some do not believe it will have its intended affect on the campaign progress. Dr. Kenneth Fernandez spoke with CardPlayer.com to discuss this donation. Dr. Fernandez stated that he does not believe that these donations will “have any real influence” on policy decisions were he to become president.

Adelson’s history shows that he has been a significant backer of conservatives, having also made contributions to Republican Senator Jon Kyl in his efforts to support the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.

Adelson claims his main concerns with online poker is that he believes as a result, underage gambling will be much harder to manage and therefore cannot be prevented. In the past year, Adelson has made an effort however to expand his operations to Asia, adding more casino interest in the East,

Las Vegas Sun editor and president, Brian Greenspun, has harshly criticised the action to expand into Asia by Adelson in December. He stated in his publication that ordinary Nevadans “don’t have Asia to promise them vast riches” and also declared that he believes the fight against online poker is a wrong move for the billionaire. Greenspun said that he hopse the casino big gun can understand “that the technology available on the Internet is very good and uses active measures preventing underage gambling.”

Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Dr. David Schwartz has also made his opinion clear that Adelson is only trying to defend his own best interests but at the foresight of this possible expansive opportunity.

“He’s one owner, and there’s a lot of different voices there. I don’t think his opinion invalidates the opinions of other folks — Wynn, Caesars, MGM — who are in favor of [online poker],” Schwartz said. “Obviously if you have an opponent it’s not going to make it easier, but I don’t think it’s insurmountable. If it forces the proponents to take a closer look at the age verification and explain what they are doing, and make a stronger case, in the end I think this is a good thing. I think that ultimately someone will be able to demonstrate age verification to Mr. Adelson’s satisfaction, and he may support it after that.”

[Source: Card Player]

Leave a Reply