Senator Cotton with an Attempt to Ban Online Gambling

While all eyes in the US are turned towards the Presidential Election that is scheduled for November, one senator is making an attempt to ban online gambling in the country. Namely, Senator Tom Cotton, who is one of the signees of Sheldon Adelson’s initiative to restore the Wire Act, has submitted a new bill S.3376 which is now on the Senate’s agenda.

The new proposition has already been referred to the Judiciary Committee and can now be debated by the senators and, potentially, passed if a majority is secured. The goal of the law is to prevent funding of illegal remote gambling. Some suggest that Cotton will now be Adelson’s key player in the attempt to expand the Wire Act to online casinos, even though the opinion of the Department of Justice from 2011 clearly states that it only applies to sports betting.

Who Is Senator Cotton?

Information on both the proposed bill and its author began to emerge. There’s not much information on the bill and it is yet to be written. Senator Cotton is the youngest senator. He is 39 years old and he is a Republican Senator for Arkansas. Certain colleagues describe him as both motivated and aggressive.

Cotton won his seat in 2015. He served in the House during the previous two years. A Harvard law graduate, Cotton worked in private practice for over a year, after serving as a clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Cotton then decided to join the military where he was accepted in the legal department. He attended few education institutions within the US Army, including Airborne School and Air Assault School.

In 2006 he served in Iraq and gained public notoriety after his attack on The New York Times. Cotton accused the paper, claiming that it published sensitive information, thus endangering the lives of US soldier. He also stated that journalists who do so should be persecuted for espionage.

Cotton was transferred to Afghanistan in 2008 and in 2010 he left the Army. During 2010 he worked on his family ranch and as a part-time management consultant, before entering politics.

A Very Controversial Figure

Cotton’s political views are quite controversial to say the list. In his youth he wrote an article in which he criticised the role of the internet, doubting whether it can be a useful educational tool. Later, he claimed that he no longer held that opinion, stating that the different was a lot different in 1998.

Cotton is seen as a one of the young hopes of the Republican Party. He is accepted by both the establishment and ultra-conservative and right wing movements such as the Tea Party. He was endorsed both by Mitt Romney and the powerful Senator Marco Rubio before he was elected in 2013.

In 2015 he led a group of 47 Senators who sent a letter to the leaders of Iran over the country’s nuclear problem. This was largely criticised, but Cotton stated that he doesn’t regret the move. He is a total ‘hawk’ when it comes to foreign policy.