New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has filed suit against the Department of Justice to obtain documents to determine Sheldon Adelson’s impact on the DOJ’s recent reversal of a legal opinion on the federal Wire Act which has challenged the legality of online gaming.
Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino, has been personally financing an effort to get online gambling banned in the U.S.
New Jersey is one of four states that have legalized online gambling and the state now brings in about $350 million in online gambling revenue and about $60 million in taxes per year, according to the Associated Press.
In January, the DOJ reversed a 2011 department opinion that said the 1961Wire act applied only to sports betting where information crossed state lines. The new opinion ruled that all types of online gambling were covered under the act, which immediately cast doubt on the legality of all online gambling, including lotteries.
Media reports—including a report in the Wall Street Journal—suggested the new opinion was almost identical to an opinion written by Adelson lobbyists.
Grewal filed an information request in February seeking information about lobbying efforts by Adelson backed groups. The state has received no reply on the requests.
Attorney General Gurbir Grewal filed a document request in February and says he hasn’t received any records in response. The suit filed in U.S. District Court seeks the turnover of those records.
“Online gaming is an important part of New Jersey’s economy, and the residents of New Jersey deserve to know why the Justice Department is threatening to come after an industry we legalized years ago,” Grewal said in a news release. “It’s especially important that we figure out whether this federal crackdown is the result of a lobbying campaign by a single individual seeking to protect his personal business interests.”
Meanwhile, New Hampshire—which runs an online lottery—has also challenged the opinion in federal court. A ruling in that case is still pending.
The DOJ has waited to begin any possible enforcement of the new opinion, but a self-imposed grace period ends next month. New Jersey’s suit notes that it had requested an expedited release of the documents since possible enforcement of the new opinion begins June 14.
Meanwhile, the World Series of Poker announced it will still hold online tournaments this year under a player sharing agreement between Nevada and New Jersey despite concerns over the effect of the new opinion.
New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada have an agreement to share online poker player pools. Only Nevada and New Jersey, however, offer WSOP.com. Last year the famed poker event staged online tournaments sharing players between the two states and has scheduled several online events for this year.
Though the new opinion would clearly challenge the legality of those player sharing agreements, the WSOP says it will offer at least two of the online events that are scheduled before June 14.
