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A Blog About Online Gaming and Entertainment Regulations

On December 18, 2012, oral arguments were heard in the federal lawsuit filed by the professional sports leagues and the NCAA against New Jersey, after the state passed a law that would legalize sports betting in the state’s casinos and racetracks. Last week, U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp ordered that oral argument would be limited to the issue of whether the sports leagues have standing to bring the suit. The leagues filed suit in August arguing that the New Jersey law was in direct contravention of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992, a federal statute that imposes a ban on sports betting unless the individual state had its own sports betting scheme in place between 1976 and 1990. New Jersey has argued in court papers that the leagues have failed to allege that they will suffer a concrete injury as a result of the sports betting law. New Jersey asserts that the leagues have failed to show a particularized injury. The state has argued that given the... Read more

A draft of the online poker bill that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) plan to introduce was released this week. The bill, known as the “Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2012” would legalize online poker at the federal level, a step that became possible last… Read More

On October 23, 2012, the European Commission will unveil a series of initiatives and actions that it plans to put into effect relating to online gaming with the overall goal of providing a better framework for online gambling services in the European Union. One of the main problems that the European Commission is facing is… Read More

Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that PokerStars will acquire Full Tilt Poker’s assets in a transaction that ends the DOJ’s civil forfeiture case against Full Tilt.  Both Full Tilt and PokerStars ran online poker sites in the U.S., and in 2011 the DOJ charged both of them with… Read More

Delaware is now poised to become the second state to legalize online gaming. On Wednesday, that state’s Senate passed a bill that would legalize web table games, including poker, video lottery games, and traditional lottery games to be offered online. Democratic Governor Jack Markell supports the bill and is expected to sign it into law… Read More

It appeared for some time last year as if New Jersey was about to become the first state to legalize and regulate online gaming in the form of poker. But Republican Gov. Chris Christie vetoed state legislation to that effect, citing legal and constitutional concerns. Now, however, Christie has laid down the gauntlet to the… Read More

On February 7, 2012, the D.C. Council voted 10-2 to repeal the city’s iGaming program, which would have made the District of Columbia the first U.S. jurisdiction to permit the playing of online poker for money. In April 2011, the District had become the first U.S. jurisdiction to enact a law that permitted online poker… Read More

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January 29, 2012

New York Mah Jong Ruling May Help Cause of Online Poker

By: Rachel Hirsch

Mah Jong, the ancient Chinese tile-based table game, can now count itself as a winner in the old debate of games of skill vs. games of chance, according to a New York state judge, who recently ruled that the game demands more than luck. On January 4, 2012, Criminal Court Judge John H. Wilson declared… Read More