A congressional proponent of re-instituting the nationwide ban on Internet gambling has announced that he will not seek another term.
Rep. Charlie Dent, Pennsylvania Republican who has served seven terms in Congress, co-sponsored legislation to ban internet gambling in 2015 and was reported to have been attempting to attach Restoring America’s Wire Act language into an appropriations bill this summer.
Dent, who serves as co-chair of the Tuesday Group – a bloc of 50 or so center right Republicans, announced his resignation Thursday evening out of what appears to be frustration over President Donald Trump and the current direction of the party.
“As a member of the governing wing of the Republican Party, I’ve worked to instill stability, certainty and predictability in Washington,” Dent said in a statement Thursday announcing that he will not seek an eighth term.
“I’ve fought to fulfill the basic functions of government, like keeping the lights on and preventing default. Regrettably, that has not been easy given the disruptive outside influences that profit from increased polarization and ideological rigidity that leads to dysfunction, disorder and chaos.”
Dent represents Pennsylvania’s 15th Congressional District, home to the Sands Bethlehem Casino. The resort is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp., whose chairman and CEO, Sheldon Adelson, has waged an anti-online gambling push in recent years.
Restoring America’s Wire Act seeks to reverse a 2011 Justice Department decision to re-interpret its prior position that the 1961 Wire Act prohibited online gambling. States now have the right to decide for themselves on whether or not they want to legalize the activity, and three have done so to date – New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.
Ironically, Dent’s home state of Pennsylvania has been moving to enable online gambling this year as part of a massive proposed gambling expansion legislative package.
The specifics surrounding Dent’s relationship with Adelson and his attempts this summer to advance RAWA legislation are murky, but the maneuvering was outed by various online gaming and states’ rights proponents.
“While details about Dent’s plan are scant, the tactic sounds like a repeat of the scheme he and other members of Congress cooked up in 2016. For years, prohibitionists have fought and failed to enact a ban on state-based Internet gambling through the normal legislative process,” wrote Michelle Minton, a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in a blog post at the time.
Dent is the second congressional RAWA proponent this year to announce his retirement. Jason Chaffetz of Utah resigned his seat in May. The Republican was the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and the primary sponsor of the RAWA legislation.
Speaking to local media, Dent emphasized that he didn’t want to overstay his welcome. “I don’t want to be one of those folks who has been here too long.”
The announcement comes just days after a well-funded state representative rolled out a primary challenge to Dent.
