On December, 23, 2011, the Office of Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice wrote to the New York State Division of the Lottery in terms which were as far-reaching as they were unexpected. Their letter was in reply to a letter dating back to December 2009 relating to concerns arising out of the transmission of state lottery transaction data across state lines by wire and the Internet, so it was hardly a hasty or ill-considered response. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) stated that it had analysed the scope of the federal Wire Act 1961 and concluded that it was limited only to sports betting. At the time of writing, the implications of this stunning reversal of the DoJ’s long held interpretation of the Wire Act (that it is not limited to sports betting and can be applied to other forms of interstate gambling) are still being assessed, but the early indications are that it will act as a further catalyst for the legalisation and regulation of online gaming on a state-by-state basis and undermine the case for federal legislation, at least in the short to medium-term.
