Is a Vote for Biden a Vote for Online Gambling in the US?

Posted by Harry Kane on Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The US electorate will head to the polls early next week, with the Democrat candidate Joe Biden currently estimated to hold an eight-point lead over his incumbent rival Donald Trump.

While topics such as coronavirus and the subsequent economic slump in the US have dominated the Presidential debates and policy measures, many within the online gambling industry are speculating about which candidate would best serve the marketplace going forward.

We’ll address this below, while asking whether a vote for Biden is a vote for further expansion of the iGaming market stateside in the near-term?

How Has Trump Treated Online Gambling Legislation?

At first glance, you may think that Donald Trump would be the best bet for online gambling in the state, especially given his persona and previous involvement in the brick-and-mortar casino industry prior to becoming President.

However, it’s the President’s history in the land-based casino marketplace and his existing relationships with US casino owners that have caused the Republican to have a negative impact on the iGaming sector in North America, with the virtual casino sector enduring a particularly stagnant period.

What’s more, Donald Trump’s administration oversaw significant changes to the so-called Wire Act of 1961, which initially prohibited interstate gambling across all channels at a Federal level.

Back in 2011, the Department of Justice (DoJ), which was then under the stewardship of Barack Obama’s administration, changed its interpretation of the original law to state that “interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a sporting event or contest would subsequently fall outside of the reach of the Wire Act.

This enabled the states of Delaware, New Jersey and most recently Pennsylvania to push ahead legislative plans to legalise online casino and poker, with these entities also entering into interstate packs and liquidity sharing as a way of boosting potential revenues.

However, the election of Trump in 2016 shifted the landscape somewhat, with the new President heavily influenced traditional casino owners and mega donors such as Sheldon Adelson. As a result of this, the DoJ moved to reverse its 2011 opinion in November 2018, declaring that the Wire Act’s prohibitions were not limited solely to sporting events and contests.

Of course, this decision has been challenged on the court of appeal circuit in the US, although a final outcome has yet to be determined.

Now, research into the DoJ’s sudden and unexpected decision has not uncovered any evidence highlighting any undue interference or influence from Adelson.

However, the entrepreneur’s numerous attempts to pass the so-called “Restoration of America’s Wire Act” are well-known within the online gambling marketplace, and while this legislation ultimately failed, he has continued to lobby for iGaming to be prohibited and invested million into Trump’s initial Presidential campaign four years ago.

Overall, there can be no doubt that the Trump administration has overseen significant damage to the growth of the iGaming market in the states, even accounting for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the PAPSA legislation which had previously banned online or mobile sports betting at a federal level.

This also took place under Trump’s tenure, but while it has enabled states to legalise sports betting at a local level, the President had little involvement in influencing this decision.

What About Biden? Is he Pro or Anti-online Gambling?

OK, we hear you ask, does this mean that Joe Biden is the man to support if I’m an online gambling enthusiast or entrepreneur?

Unfortunately, the answer is not quite to simple, as while Donald Trump and his donors appear to have made significant moves against iGaming overall, Joe Biden has not come out in the support of the iGaming market and its future expansion.

In fact, Biden rarely ever speaks about gambling or iGaming legislation, although this is understandable given the ongoing threat posed by Covid-19 and the attempts to restore and revive an ailing economy.

What’s interesting, however, is Biden’s stance on the rule of law, and more specifically the role of federal government in dictating laws that effect citizens nationwide.

When discussing this topic, Biden has suggested that he would not look to prohibit virtual casino gameplay or sports betting at a national level, which would mean that the DoJ would most likely revert to its progressive 2011 opinion and empower local authorities to pass their own legislation.

Biden has confirmed this assertion in previous interviews, when he stated that he disagreed with the 2018 revision and would take proactive steps to reverse this immediately.

This would at least restore a semblance of growth to the industry, as states would be permitted to discuss and pass legislation that legalised different gambling verticals and generate new tax revenues in the process.

From a more general perspective, Democrat governments are widely considered to be progressive in their outlook and more tolerant to online gambling (this was borne out during the eight-year premiership of Barack Obama.

This would also seem to favour the election of Biden, although it’s fair to surmise that the diverse nature of the modern Democratic party means that such an assertion cannot be made with total confidence in the longer-term.

The Last Word – Is Biden the Man for iGaming?

Ultimately, it’s too grand a call to proclaim Joe Biden as the man to vote for if you have a vested interest in seeing the sustained growth of the iGaming market stateside.

However, it is fair to say that current incumbent Donald Trump has been proven to favour federal intervention and manipulation of online gambling legislation, whereas Joe Biden is against this type of approach and would instead support state attempts to decide their own destiny in this respect.

Of course, there’s a host of critical factors being discussed in the build-up to the 2020 election, and in this respect, we shouldn’t expect to see online gambling legislation high on any candidate’s priority list as judgement day approaches.

For anyone who is interested in this topic and wants to make an informed decision, however, the law of averages suggests that a vote for Biden is one that’s more likely to benefit the online gambling market in the US over the course of the next four years.