President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general says he will revisit a U.S. Justice Department ruling that paved the way for New Jersey-based casinos to offer online gambling to state residents.

The nominee, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), raised the possibility that he could overturn the 2011 decision in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I would revisit it and I would make a decision about it based on careful study," Sessions said in response to questioning by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a co-sponsor of legislation to reverse the ruling giving states the right to offer Internet gambling to their residents.

Conservatives seek gambling ban
Conservatives seek gambling ban
Conservative organizations, many of which have focused their attention on abortion and same-sex marriage, have lined up in favor of legislation to ban Internet gambling.

Following the Justice Department's new interpretation of the Wire Act, New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware agreed to let their residents gamble online. Through November 2016, New Jersey's casinos brought in $372.5 million in revenue through online poker and games, according to state Division of Gaming Enforcement statistics compiled by PlayNJ.

"It is disappointing to hear a Republican nominee for attorney general signal his openness to undermine states' rights to operate online gaming within its borders," said Jason Galanes, a spokesman for Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.), whose district includes Atlantic City.

Trump, who formerly owned casinos in Atlantic City, earlier expressed support for sports betting. That led Geoff Freeman, president and chief executive of the Washington-based American Gaming Association to proclaim in December: "I think we have everything coming together to support a regulated environment."

That's a separate issue from allowing gambling over the Internet, though both are of particular interest to New Jersey and seen as ways to revitalize the state's casino industry following the loss of five brick-and-mortar casinos in Atlantic City.

Trump's pick for attorney general, Sessions, said he was "shocked" and critical of the original memorandum allowing online gambling, though he said he didn't know how he would finally rule on the issue.

"Apparently, there is some jurisdiction or argument that can made to support the Department of Justice's position, but I did oppose it when it happened," Sessions told the committee.

His comments worried groups who said states, not the federal government, should decide whether to allow online gambling.

"A de facto federal prohibition of internet gaming will undermine the ability of states to protect consumers and will lead to an unaccountable and completely unregulated black market," said John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance.

A coalition of organizations opposed to federal regulation also weighed in against Sessions, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The institute's donors have included Murray Energy, whose employees were Trump's biggest outside source of cash to his presidential campaign committee. The director of the institute's Center for Energy and Environment, Myron Ebell, questions climate change and oversees Trump's Environmental Protection Agency transition team.

In a letter to Sessions and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the groups wrote that reversing the Justice Department's ruling "would severely injure one of our nation's founding principles: the idea that the federal government's power should be limited and states should be free to regulate intrastate commerce as they see fit."

They decried "cronyist calls from casino interests to create a national gambling ban."

Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, an opponent of online gambling, and his wife contributed $20 million to a super political action committee supporting Trump.

An Adelson-funded group, the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, said it was "encouraged by Sen. Sessions' commitment to revisit the Obama administration's overreach on Internet gambling and delighted to learn he was similarly shocked by their memorandum gutting the Wire Act."

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