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The Department of Justice (DOJ) last week announced that it will no longer apply The Wire Act to online poker, thus placing the gambling sector into a frenzy during what would normally be a slow holiday season. Essentially, the new stance allows individual states to begin allowing legalized regulated Internet poker for real money without the threat of federal intervention provided the activity takes place within that state’s borders. Nevertheless, pooling of players from multiple states may become an option similar to what we see with Powerball.
ABC and CNN are all over this story.
From ABC News:
Rick Bronson, chairman of U.S. Digital Gaming, said the change would give states the ability to legally operate online gambling beginning with poker and also sell lottery tickets on the Internet.
He said that poker would likely generate $12 billion a year in revenue for states and that the lotteries — already a $60 billion to $70 billion business — would continue to grow.
According to a 2010 Morgan Stanley report, analysts said that allowing Internet gambling could bring in $5 billion.
I. Nelson Rose, Whittier Law School professor and expert on gaming law, called the Justice Department move a “major Christmas present for the Internet gambling community.”
“We are about to see this explosion of Internet gambling sweep across the nation,” he said. “All we’re seeing is every single state proposing more and more legal gambling. … Gambling is seen as a painless tax, involuntary tax so it is an easy way to raise revenue without raising real taxes.”
More Gambling News Headlines for The Overnight Hours Heading Into Saturday December 31, 2011
Kansas Gaga Over Online Lotteries But Not Poker – Tim Carpenter of the Topeka Capital-Journal on Friday predicted how the state of Kansas will likely react now that the US Justice Department has announced it will no longer apply The Wire Act to state lotteries or online poker.
The U.S. Department of Justice's determination that states can legally sell lottery tickets to adult residents over the Internet will revolutionize the $56 billion-a-year lottery industry.
Authorization for development of online marketing could eventually compel the Kansas Lottery to make virtual tickets available to Kansans with a mobile phone. The state could sell Powerball and Mega Millions tickets to people sitting at their home computer.
It could blow over-the-counter sales out of the water in Kansas and 42 other states with a lottery.
The Justice Department's new stance also opened the door to online poker sponsored by state governments. Kansas regulators are unlikely to embrace that opportunity.
California to Immediately Begin Exploring the Sale of Lottery Tickets Online - Officials at the California State Lottery said they will explore selling tickets over the Internet after the Justice Department determined that such sales would not violate federal law. The California State Lottery review was prompted by a Justice Department ruling last week that states would not violate federal law by selling lottery tickets over the Internet. The state lottery will not consider offering online poker at this time, however. Read More Here >>>
Online State Lotteries Would be a Windfall - Online tickets may bring much-needed revenue to states facing a collective $31.9 billion budget gap in the next fiscal year, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. In 2010, Americans spent more than $4 billion to gamble online, up from $2.4 billion in 2003, according to the American Gaming Association. Read More Here >>>
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
