iGB North America magazine IGBNA Aug/Sep | Page 41

Feature

“In the three states
already offering online
gaming, basic IP
spoofing is just one
of many techniques
that has already
been eliminated as
a potential threat.”
to remove the state’s 10th Amendment
authority to regulate online gambling as
states see fit within their own borders. We
hope you will not allow RAWA to become
yet another instance where the federal
government expands its encroachment into
the states’ purview. State governments are
more than capable of making this decision.”
This was counter-signed by several
influential interested parties, including the
Taxpayer Protection Alliance.
This struggle within the GOP over
RAWA centers on two beliefs at the center
of the party, brought into stark conflict
with one another by this issue. First, the
aforementioned opposition to bigger,
centralized government, and second, a moral
opposition to the spread of all forms of
gambling. This is because RAWA’s proposed
curtailing of the spread of gambling would
be at the expense of a greater centralized
government in the form of a federal ban.
Interestingly, when faced with a decision
of which is more important, containing
gambling or limiting the role of government
in people’s lives, it has become very clear that
with the exception of a self-interested select
few, GOP cares more about the principal of
smaller federal government than personal
moral opinions on gambling.
The topic is expected to come to a head
during the first televised GOP presidential
debate on 6 August in Cleveland, as vocal
opponents to Rubio, such as Donald Trump,
will likely look to make this a primary

topic of
discussion.
Donald Trump,
for a long-time
associated with the
gambling industry, has proven quite
controversial in his recent comments on
subjects such as Mexican immigrants, John
McCain and now potentially Rubio, who
has left himself vulnerable.

Fight off the Hill: NACS’s Lyle Beckwith
and his technological blunder
As proponents and opponents continue to
take sides and as arguments are constructed
in favor of their positions, none could be
more outlandish than the recent op-ed
piece penned by the Senior Vice President
of Government Relations for the National
Association of Convenience Stores, Lyle
Beckwith. On 21 May, Beckwith published
the op-ed piece in Rollcall.com in support of
Adelson’s RAWA by attempting to discredit
the states’ ability to effectively monitor
gaming activity within their borders, citing

ineffective geolocation technology.
By writing about this op-ed piece, I may
accidentally give more credence to Beckwith’s
stance of support for RAWA founded on
his arguments about the lack of effective
geolocation software, than it deserves.
That being said, it has been written and is
therefore available for influential politicians
to view. Before I attempt to challenge the
underlying premise of his arguments, I will
say that he has one valid point in his op-ed
piece. Some lotteries, with emphasis on the
“some”, have been slower in adopting critical
geolocation technologies than their gaming
counterparts. In an attempt to protect the
position of the convenience stores, the NACS,
working in conjunction with its lobbying
firm Stept