The Department of Justice has announced that it will wait 90 days to implement the new Wire Act, a recently-revised legal opinion that is set to widely affect online gambling in the USA.
Deputy Attorney General issued a memorandum, saying the 90-day delay enables businesses to adjust their operations.
The legal opinion in question, published to the media on Monday. It says the long-standing Federal Wire Act should also apply to all other forms of gambling that cross state lines.
This complete reversal of a previous legal opinion decided upon by the Justice Department in 2011. This was that online interstate gambling that did not involve sporting events did not violate the Federal Wire Act.
Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands Corp CEO will warmly welcome the Justice Department’s revised legal opinion.
Reports say the 83-year-old billionaire’s Sands Corporation employed five lobbying firms. This, in the third quarter of last year, two of which concentrated on online gambling and the wire act.
This, it has been claimed by his opponents, is because of Adelson’s belief that online gambling, especially across state lines, takes away business from his brick-and-mortar gaming operations.
How the Wire Act May Affect New Jersey
The Justice Department’s new legal opinion is a special cause of concern right now for New Jersey. Because, together with Nevada and Delaware, has an interstate compact for online poker that was created a few years ago.
New Jersey and Delaware did not have any immediate comment to make, a Reuters report said. However, the Nevada Gaming Control Board is studying the department’s opinion “to determine its ramifications.”
Will the new developments in the wire act affect New Jersey’s thriving new sports betting industry in any way?
Because sports betting is the only form of gambling in the US currently prohibited from out-of-state online gambling, the answer is yes.
NJ led the fight that saw the Federal law prohibiting sports betting in most US States struck down in mid-2018.
They might see further court action over gambling as a good opportunity to also have the Wire Act struck down.
They could accept bets from, not just within New Jersey as they do now, but from all over the USA.
