Online poker was the biggest winner in this week’s Wire Act decision. The judge in the U.S. District Court case of New Hampshire vs. the Department of Justice ruled that the Interstate Wire Act applies only to “activities associated with sports gambling” and not to the interstate sale of online lottery tickets. This decision seems to kill the DOJ’s recent re-interpretation that the act somehow applies to all online gambling. Here is a closer look at how Monday’s federal court decision affects online poker, sports gambling and fantasy sports.
For online poker, the court decision represents just about the greatest win imaginable at this stage of litigation. Prior to the Trump administration’s November 2018 memorandum, the U.S. states that had legalized online poker, including Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada, had taken steps to allow for interstate poker pools, which would have allowed licensed operators to offer contests across state lines. The court decision clearly supports the legality of interstate poker compacts, paving the way for online poker’s further growth on a national or semi-national basis.
For sports betting operators, the Wire Act decision is legally neutral, but arguably undesirable for lobbying purposes. Despite some of what has been reported by the mainstream media, the court decision does nothing to aid the legal position of the sports gambling industry. Sports gambling operators will need to continue to operate their activities completely within state borders.
As far as fantasy sports, this decision remains ambiguous, but it doesn’t hurt them. The big unanswered question is whether fantasy sports contests that include the prediction of player performances over multiple real-world sporting events constitute the “placing bets or wages on [a] sporting event of contest,” which are behaviors subject to regulation by the Wire Act, even under Monday’s court ruling.
Read more about the recent Wire Act decision at Forbes
