We're kicking off the New Year with gambling news on the Department of Justice Wire Act case involving online gambling! Discussion includes Sheldon Adelson, Joe Biden and the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. Also, Virtual Reality is taking over Las Vegas. Soon, players may be able to use VR to bring Vegas to them!
In 2011, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a memorandum in response to a question from lotteries in New York and Illinois seeking to sell tickets online. The opinion clarified that the Wire Act only applied to wagering on sporting events or contests.
Online lottery retailers, therefore, did not need to worry about implicating that statute.
Congress worked in the years that followed to pass legislation dubbed the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA), which would have expanded the scope to include additional online gaming activities. Despite some bipartisan support, RAWA never found much traction and eventually slipped out of the spotlight.
The current administration, however, managed to meet the objective of RAWA via executive action in the form of a 2018 OLC memorandum. It effectively accomplished what Congress could not, reversing the 2011 memorandum and the position affirmed by one appellate court and endorsed by another.
More at This Week in Gambling.
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