US Justice Dept Now Said “Not To Oppose Online Gambling Other Than On Sports”

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According to a story in the New York Times,  citing a memorandum from the US Justice Department issued in September but first made public on Friday, the US in a reversal of a long standing position against online gambling, may not oppose it when it comes to anything other than betting on sports.
The memo was in response to requests by New York and Illinois to clarify whether the Wire Act of 1961, which prohibits wagering over telecommunications systems that cross state or national borders, prevented those states from using the Internet to sell lottery tickets to adults within their own borders.

The opinion said that the Act did not prohibit the states from accepting online lotto purchases from residents within the state.

According to the Times, In a separate request in July, Senators Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, asked the Justice Department to clarify its position on Internet gambling, seeking either to affirm that federal law prohibits gambling over the Internet or to make sure that Congress has a role in drafting any expansion of online betting.

Nevada is making a push to be the first state to allow online poker betting from within the state.

According to the Times, “”The new policy merely reverses the Justice Department’s longstanding position that all forms of online gambling are illegal in the United States.”

“It does not necessarily pave the way for national rules governing online gambling.”

We have maintained over the years, that as states seek more sources of revenue to pay the bills it seems to be inevitable that the US will soften its rules prohibiting online gambling to join most the rest of the world.

 

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. Santa says

    MHB,
    what does this REALLY mean. When it’s all said and done can we promote as affiliates poker sites for example? Will they be able to advertise on TV?

  3. Tom G says

    @Santa

    Many States are considering intrastate poker legislation ( Nevada passed last week), and there are two bills in congress for regulation of poker and casino games online.

    I am a poker affiliate and never stopped promoting. There have always been sites willing to accept real money players in the U.S.

    The wire act was the most often referenced law concerning the illegal status of poker and now they have reversed that position.

    Big name land based casinos have signed deals with prominent providers likePartyGaming and 888 Holdings.

    Sucks for one of the PartyPoker guys who paid the U.S. 300$ million a couple years ago.

  4. BullS says

    online gambling, legalize marijuana, gay and open trade with Cuba—come on Obama-all revenue generating programs and job creation.

  5. Zoot says

    This is a big step forward for online poker being “allowed” again. I’m not all that interested in playing
    online but the development and affiliate opportunities are going to be nice to have again. A lot of us took
    a huge rev hit back in 2006 and it sure would be nice in these interesting economic times to get some or
    maybe even more of that lost revenue back.

    Nothing is going to change over night but this is a very positive development … going to mean a big boost
    in the value of quality poker and gambling domains as well.

  7. Good says

    So what is the PartyPoker guy thinking now?

    “I paid a $300M settlment unnecessarily?”

    Ambiguity can be expensive.

    Nice URL headline by NYT: “online-gaming-loses-obstacle”

    gaming != gambling

  8. Dan says

    Hi,

    Not a surprise….about two days after they announced the take downs of most all of the well known online poker sites, they voted for and approved online poker for just Washington DC only.

    But…as of now, they do not appear to have implemented it yet.

    I guess “DC’ is not a State 😉

    Peace,
    ‘D’

  9. Hal Meyer says

    An interesting development.

    There is a ton of potential tax revenue for the government, so there is a strong incentive to allow it and regulate it.

    Plan accordingly 😉