Im sure this brief recap will serve to see the progress the states are making in their quests to legalize and regulate online gambling.
1961 The Interstate Wire Wager Act of 1961 bans bets over telecommunications systems that cross state lines or national borders.
2006 – The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 curbs a boom in online gambling by prohibiting businesses from accepting payments from a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet. Online gambling sites, which previously generated an estimated $6 billion a year from poker alone, are driven underground.
In 2006, both Ron Paul and Barney Frank strongly opposed H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act, and H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. To restore online gambling rights, in 2007 Frank sponsored H.R. 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act. This bill would have established licensing and regulation of online gaming sites. It provided for age verification and protections for compulsive gamblers.
In 2008, he and Paul introduced H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act, a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 while the United States Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined unlawful Internet gambling.
2010 – Officials in New York and Illinois press the Department of Justice on whether existing laws might prevent them from selling lottery tickets online.
2011 United States v. Scheinberg, 10 Cr. 336 (2011), is a United States federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus (Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet), and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and engaged in bank fraud and money laundering in order to process transfers to and from their customers.
On December 20, 2011, Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Buckley pled guilty to misleading banks. The plea deal calls for him to receive a sentence between a year and a year and a half in prison. Sentencing was set for April 19.
On January 17th, 2012, Ira Rubin entered a plea agreement in a Manhattan federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein. Rubin agreed to plea guilty to three of the nine counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud he faced and is due to be sentenced on May 17th, 2012. Rubin is expected to sentenced to 18-24 months of prison.
2012 – Following the call for clarification, December 2011, the Department of Justice released to the public a formal legal opinion on the scope of the Act concluding that interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a sporting event or contest fall outside the reach of the Wire Act.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Wire Act prohibition on the transmission of wagers applies only to sports betting and not other types of online gambling. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the meaning of the Federal Wire Act as it pertains to online gambling.
In conclusion here is one of my favorite quotes, What that means is that states are now free to do just about anything they want, says gambling analyst and Whittier law Professor I. Nelson Rose. Rose says the Justice Department opinion was a Christmas present from the Obama administration to cash-strapped states, which will be able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.
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