WEEKLY FEATURE: Wire Act Opinion Falls

A federal judge has ruled that the 1961 federal Wire Act applies only to sports wagering, essentially striking down a recent revised opinion on the act from the Department of Justice. The ruling, for now, seems to protect online lotteries and online casino and poker games where information crosses state lines through the internet. The ruling came in a challenge to the DOJ’s new opinion—which held the wire act applied to all forms of online gaming—from the New Hampshire lottery.