NFL lobbyist on White House staff pushes for online gambling ban
The Bush Administration is developing end-of-Admininistration rules that would continue the 2006 ban on Internet gambling. Who's working on developing those rules? One William Wichterman, who until March lobbied for the NFL in favor of online gambling restrictions, according to the Washington Post. He now works for the White House Office of Public Liaison. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said there was no problem with the assignment.
"He appropriately sought and received clearance from ethics officers to be able to work on this rule. I know our ethics officers to be professionals who know the law and the guidelines inside out.
The rules are being written to implement a controversial 2006 law that banned Internet gambling in the U.S., a development that sent the online gaming industry and its billions in revenue overseas. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has led efforts to change the law to tax rather than ban that revenue.
"I am deeply disappointed to hear that your agency is proceeding with what I consider to be unseemly haste in issuing regulations" to implement the law, Frank wrote Monday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. He said the new regulations would "burden the financial services industry at a time of economic crisis" and tie the hands of the Obama administration.
But the NFL -- whose lobbyists won an exemption for fantasy football leagues -- is said to oppose changing the ban because it blocks competition for the leagues, on which the NFL collects serious money in royalties for the use of its stats, logos and player information. Rep. Stephen I. Cohen (D-Tenn.) wrote to to White House counsel Fred Fielding that the "impetus for the rule may have been a particular White House employee who has a clear and obvious conflict of interest." Cohen said he had been told that Wichterman "has been a source of considerable political pressure to speed this regulation through to finalization."
It's just great that in the midst of the Great Recession, Treasury and the White House can make time to enrich the NFL and cut taxpayers off from a source of serious tax revenue. Thanks, Hank!