Following the closure of many online casinos in the United States, year 2011 has been an unfortunate one for the US online gambling market. Numerous major online poker rooms had to shut down their operations in US markets in April this year. Consequently, the online gambling business in the country has smacked an all-time low.
The US Department of Justice has been showing a very strict behavior since April 2011. But now in the last days of the year, it has given a ray of hope to the online gambling business for the coming year. The department has announced that the Wire Act of 1961 will not be applied to online poker or online casino gambling from now onward. The act will only be applied to online sports betting.
The online gambling operators have had a tough time dealing with the US Department of Justice and have paid millions of dollars as fine earlier this year. Several legal actions were taken by the DoJ against many high-profile online casino operators. For them, this change of heart will only be a little consolation as they have already spent so much in dealing with the closure.
The Wire Act 1961 has been re-evaluated by the Office of Legal Counsel. The unit functions under the United States Department of Justice. The change in opinion can unarguably be attributed to this reevaluation. But unfortunately, there is no hope for online sports betting operators despite this reevaluation.
The reevaluation of the act by the Office of Legal Counsel followed questions from the American states of Illinois and New York about selling lottery tickets on internet. The Department of Justice stated that the plans of selling lottery tickets online did not have anything to do with the sports betting. Written by Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz, the 13-page opinion was published on September 20, 2011, and said, “Accordingly, we conclude that the proposed lotteries are not within the prohibitions of the Wire Act.”
Besides this, there was another announcement from the US Department of Justice. It said that individual US states had full authority to authorize and control online gambling operations within their territories. But, it should not involve sports betting. The announcement was in response to a letter to DoJ written by Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, and Jon Kyl, Senator. The letter asked for explanations on the legitimacy or legality of online gaming.
The Department of Justice made it clear that it has all the rights to scrutinize and take legal action against illegal gambling companies under the UIGEA in the states that ban any or all forms of gambling. The online gambling market experts feel that DoJ has reached its new decision after numerous court decisions.
With this new announcement, the department has given strong indication that online poker as well as other online gambling will be possibly legalized soon. The entire industry hopes that the issue will be carried forward at the same pace created by this announcement. “The time is opportune for federal legislation to curb a proliferation of domestic and foreign, unlicensed and unregulated online gambling states,” as per a statement released by the American Gaming Association.