Federal Judge Strikes Down DOJ’s Opinion on Scope of Wire Act

The new ruling of the Wire Act prohibits the interstate transmission of wagering information and it was introduced last year by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).

But, on Monday, US District Court Judge, Paul Barbadoro, introduced a directive to annul the new opinion on the extent of the 1961 Wire Act, which most probably gladdened interstate online gambling operators.

More Details on DoJ’s New Opinion

According to the DOJ’s new opinion, the Wire Act should apply to almost all forms of online gambling. But, that was in direct contradiction to the DOJ’s 2011 opinion on the same thing…

…where the state department said it applies only to sports betting.

That is why several states launched their intrastate online casino, poker and lottery markets.

The New Hampshire Lottery Commission (NHLC) thinks differently than the DOJ, noting that this new rule massively threatens its online lottery sales and the sales of Powerball tickets.

The DOJ responded that the NHLC didn’t have a good reason not to accept the new opinion because it didn’t explicitly target state lottery operations.

Barbardoro’s Opinion on the Subject

Barbadoro said the NHLC had “openly engaged for many years in conduct that the 2018 OLC opinion now brands as criminal.”

He also said there was a risk that the DOJ would prosecute the NHLC, while also rejecting the DOJ’s claim that there was only a low risk that the NHLC would face prosecution.

Barbadoro said that the 2018 opinion mentioned that some US states had started their online lottery sales after the 2011 opinion.

The Department of Justice had also given a grace period of 90 days for everyone who maintained a business online to act according to the federal law…

…without mentioning that it doesn’t apply to the state lotteries.

Barbadoro said “this is no hypothetical case” because the NHLC faced “a sufficiently imminent threat of enforcement.”

The Deal with NHLC

So, the NHLC should have either gone through prosecution and terminated all of its operations, or taken necessary measures.

The 2018 opinion was a complete circus because of the absence of a comma in DOJ’s clause…

…which should have explained if the ban of online wagering applied to sports betting only.

Barbadoro s the request for summary judgment and says that the Department had produced “a capable, but mistaken, legal opinion that no additional process can cure. The proper remedy is to ‘set aside’ the 2018 OLC opinion.”

Likely to End Up at the Supreme Court

So, it looks like the DOJ will appeal Barbadoro’s ruling, as the judge already said that the case would probably end up at the US Supreme Court.

In a normal situation, the DOJ might say that its 2018 opinion wasn’t that convincing.

But, since the opinion was seen as lobbying of Sheldon Adelson, it will probably continue with its story.

Source:

“Federal judge strikes down DOJ’s new opinion on scope of Wire Act”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, June 4, 2019.