According to an article published on Monday on RedState.com, Sheldon Adelson‘s vaunted Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling is ironically being led by former lawmakers who were pro-gaming. Oops. The article singled out former New York Republican Governor George Pataki (pictured) and former Denver Democrat MayorWellington Webb, both of whom have been trumpeting the alleged evils of internet gambling to the masses without the masses realizing who they’re listening to.

According to RedState, “Gov. Pataki was labeled by The New York Times in 2001 as ‘perhaps the most pro-gambling governor the state has ever had.'” The article went on to say that the New York Lottery tripled its revenues under Pataki’s leadership to over $6 billion per year.

It added, “Pataki pushed three gambling solutions to the New York state’s runaway budget troubles: an expansion of the state lottery, a new Indian casino in Western New York, and slot machines installed in horse-racing tracks.” Again, this is a top advisor to the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling.

Why would a man who tried high and low to expand gambling when he was in office in New York seek to squash online gambling in the US just a decade later? RedState jabbed, “These days, Pataki claims the spread of online gambling will fuel terrorism networks and transnational organized crime as it makes money laundering easier.”

Then there’s Webb, whom you likely recall said that “internet gambling is for chumps” in a recent Philadelphia Tribune article. Webb went all-out with the lottery as mayor of Denver, using its proceeds to fund parks around town. RedState explained, “Webb embarked on a plan to revitalize housing in downtown Denver using resources from the State Historic Fund, which is financed, in part, by gambling revenues.”

Webb’s off-the-wall rant against online gambling in the Tribune equated internet gaming to “having a fast food restaurant in your living room” and “having an alcoholic in a bar 24-7.” It took similes to a new level. Rather than push to eradicate the lottery in Colorado, however, Webb (pictured) apparently used gambling’s fruits to the fullest extent.

As RedState concluded, “Isn’t it funny how neither Gov. Pataki nor Mayor Webb had a problem with gambling – or the ‘chumps’ it attracts – when it came to funding their favored government projects?”

Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas perhaps said it best, telling PocketFives, “More evidence that this is not a real coalition of concerned Americans, rather it is a coalition of people willing to say whatever earns them a paycheck.”

According to its website, the Coalition believes that “targeting the young, the poor, and the elderly where they live, internet gambling takes gambling too far.” Besides Pataki and Webb, other Coalition Chairs are former Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln and Former Speaker of the California State Assembly Willie Lewis Brown, Jr.

As a reminder, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corporation operates the Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas and Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. This author would advise against any PocketFiver spending any money at any of these properties.

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