Yesterday, just before Christmas, the U.S. Justice Department revealed that it had changed one of its most important positions and longstanding Internet gambling, stating that the Federal Wire Act of 1961 applies only to sports betting. The new position on the Wire Act marks a significant change for the Department of Justice, which often rested on this law when he said that all forms of Internet gambling, especially in online poker, is illegal.
"The Office of the Department of legal advice discussed the scope of the Wire Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1084, and concluded that it is limited to only sports betting," announced yesterday the Attorney general James Cole in a letter
This new position is fraught with consequences, inter alia for States wishing to use internet to sell lottery tickets to adults in their States. The division of the lottery of the State of New York and the office of the Governor of Illinois asked the Justice Department to clarify the law to determine if they could use the internet, in 2009. In a legal opinion of 13 pages written by the Attorney general Deputy Seitz Virginie and dated September 20, the Ministry of Justice says "there is nothing in the materials provided by the Criminal Division suggests that the Act applies to something other than sports betting. Accordingly, we conclude that the proposed Lotteries are not among the Wire Act bans'.
Yet for years, the Justice Department argued that the application of the Wire Act went well beyond sports betting. The previous position had played an important role not only at the levels of lotteries of States, but also in the legal battle that this come the DoJ and illegal online gambling sites. The Attorney general, in 2007, had asserted that the Wire Act applies to all games on the internet: "opinion of the Ministry of Justice is that all forms of Internet gambling, including sports betting, casino games and card games are illegal under federal law. Although the Act does not use the term "game on the Internet, we believe that the wording of the law is sufficient to cover", said attorney general Hanaway.»
In 2008, Anurag Dikshit, co-founder of PartyGaming, then pleaded guilty in Federal Court for violation of the Wire Act. Dikshit had then agreed to pay $ 300 million and was sentenced to one year of probation. At the time, the U.S. Attorney's office had based its decision on the fact that "approximately 1997 to October 2006, PartyGaming PLC, a Gibraltar company, [...]", operated a business of games on the Internet which offered Games casino and poker online, in addition to other games of chance. ".
In the recent events of 'Black Friday', the Department of Justice was however kept away from the Wire Act. Thus, the DoJ does not based on Wire Act when in charge of the representatives of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the Cereus network. The DoJ then rather relied on the UIGEA, in addition to bank fraud.
Although this is excellent news for poker online, we are still far from the Cup to the lips and there are still many other steps before a legalization of online poker. But the new opinion of American Justice Department marks another victory for online poker in the United States.
Discuss this news by clicking the following link: win for poker online in the United States.
