Former majority leader lobbying for online gambling opponents

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), former Sen John Breaux (D-LA) and a host of other former congressional staffers will lobby for a group pushing a ban on Internet gambling. The Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling -- backed by GOP donor and casino owner Sheldon Adelson -- hired the lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs, according to disclosures filed July 14. The group is lobbying in support of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, which would renew federal restrictions on online gambling. It would reinstate the original interpretation of the Wire Act, which was used to prosecute early Internet gambling such as online poker.

The Justice Department changed its interpretation in 2011 to say the law should not be used to go after online gambling, except traditional sports betting. The legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate and is cosponsored by a pair of GOP presidential candidates in the Senate -- Sens Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).