A Blog About Online Gaming and Entertainment Regulations
A tried and true military strategy is to cut off your enemy’s supply lines: blow up a bridge and force a retreat. The tactic works in other situations too. It is regularly used by legislators and government agencies to address what they view as problem behavior from a particular industry. Instead of targeting the industry,… Read More
On September 26, 2016, the Philadelphia 76ers announced that they had acquired two leading eSports teams, Team Dignitas and Team Apex. Not to be outdone, the next day Team Liquid announced they had sold a controlling share to Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Guber and entrepreneur Ted Leonsis, who is the majority owner of the… Read More
Do you remember when I wrote about how a federal district court had ruled that an online poker account was akin to a bank account and should therefore be subject to FBAR reporting? It seemed nonsense to me at the time—and I also worried about whether the court’s expanded definition of a “financial institution” would… Read More
We are living in a virtual (or perhaps “augmented”) Pokémon explosion. You can’t get away from news of public craze over Pokémon Go. Players young and youngish have made the game today’s most popular app, outpacing Twitter and Tinder download rates. In less than ten days from its release, estimates are that almost 26 million… Read More
*photo obtained from https://gameora.tumblr.com/ In light of unprecedented controversy over the legality of “skin betting” and eSports gambling, Jeff Ifrah and two other attorneys took to Reddit to answer questions from players, fans, and professionals. Together with Bryce Blum and Ryan Morrison, Ifrah participated in an AUA (“Ask Us Anything”) thread on July 5, 2016—just… Read More
Defenders of DFS like to point out that it is skill-predominant. If the same can be said for public prosecution, then New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been fielding one hell of a losing lineup. Between the two of them, DraftKings and FanDuel dominated the DFS space, and they still did after Schneiderman dumped… Read More
The iGaming world is excited about Assembly Bill 2863—better known as the Gray bill because of lead sponsor Adam Gray—which would legalize and regulate intrastate online poker in California. A few weeks ago, the bill unanimously cleared the Assembly’s Governmental Organization Committee; now it looks set to clear the Appropriations Committee as well. Those are… Read More
It’s a familiar sight: rows of men and women, on a bus or a subway, hands and eyes glued to their phones. But they’re not talking or texting or e-mailing. They are playing slots, though not for real money. This is the world of social casino – the subgenre of social gaming featuring casino-style games… Read More
Exchange wagering—a fixed-odds variant of pari-mutuel betting—is making its U.S. debut today. Monmouth Park, a racetrack in New Jersey, has begun offering on-site and online exchange wagering in cooperation with Betfair US. Beyond its own races, Monmouth Park has agreements for simulcast exchange wagering on ten racetracks around the country, with plans to expand the… Read More
