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Gambling on Skill: Enforcement of Gambling Laws Against Skill Games in Outlier States
FEATURED
March 10, 2026
Gambling on Skill: Enforcement of Gambling Laws Against Skill Games in Outlier States
By: Jordan Briggs
In many states, people can legally pay entry fees to participate in a skill game and win cash prizes. For most states that allow participants to wager on their own skilled gameplay, the analysis for whether a certain game qualifies as a legal skill game turns on whether the game is one of chance or of skill. Each state has its own test to determine if a game is chance or skill, but these tests fall into three categories. The most common test is the “predominant factor” test, which recognizes that all games have some element of chance but hinges on whether skill dominates the contest. If factors like superior knowledge, dexterity, and practice contribute largely to the outcome (i.e.,…
CFTC Plants the Flag on Regulating Prediction Markets
March 4, 2026
CFTC Plants the Flag on Regulating Prediction Markets
By: John Mikuta
On February 25, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the governmental body primarily responsible for overseeing prediction markets, took a significant step toward consolidating its authority to oversee trading activities on prediction-market platforms.[1] The CFTC’s Division of Enforcement issued a “Prediction Markets Advisory” describing two enforcement actions brought by Kalshi, the world’s largest prediction market.[2] Both enforcement actions involved trades by Kalshi users who…
Jeff Ifrah Talks iGaming M&A: Opportunities, Strategies, and Smart Plays
February 18, 2026
Jeff Ifrah Talks iGaming M&A: Opportunities, Strategies, and Smart Plays
By: Ifrah Law
One of the best-known power players in iGaming, Jeff Ifrah is both the team captain and the founding MVP of Ifrah Law’s nationally ranked Online Gaming and Sports Betting practice. His strength as a litigator is matched by his depth as a business strategist and counselor. A respected dealmaker, Jeff has helped to incubate, structure and advise on many of the industry’s game-changing M&A transactions…
Sports Betting Operators Find Opportunities and Challenges in New Artificial Intelligence Tools
May 2, 2023
Sports Betting Operators Find Opportunities and Challenges in New Artificial Intelligence Tools
By: Jacob Grubman
For bookmakers, who have honed their tools of prediction since the dawn of sports betting, artificial intelligence seems like a natural fit. With a diverse array of AI and AI-adjacent products reaching the market, sports betting operators are primed to exploit these technological developments to offer new and better products to their users. As these two frontier industries meet, regulatory hurdles and obligations are likely…
Ifrah Law at NFT.NYC: Web3 Gaming’s Growing Pains and Maturity
April 26, 2023
Ifrah Law at NFT.NYC: Web3 Gaming’s Growing Pains and Maturity
By: Jake Gray
From April 12th to April 14th, NFT.NYC held its fourth inaugural event since its launch in 2019, boasting more than 1,500 speakers across seven different categories and a featured section. Moving from an array of venues spread throughout Times Square to a centralized location North Javits, Hudson Yards, the event was significantly less well attended than the previous year. Official attendance numbers have not been…
Ifrah Law on Web3: Web3.0’s Solutions
April 19, 2023
Ifrah Law on Web3: Web3.0’s Solutions
By: Jake Gray
At issue in Web2.0 was the centralization of web platforms and protocols under a user-independent authority, and therefore users’ inability to meaningfully exert control over their web experience, interactions, and data. While such a dynamic provided significant benefits in making the web accessible to a much wider population by lowering the technical barrier to entry, a concomitant effect was that large technology companies retained much…
Ifrah Law on Web3: Origins of the Web
April 17, 2023
Ifrah Law on Web3: Origins of the Web
By: Jake Gray
In parts (1) and (2) of this series, we’ll cover the basics of the Web and aspects of its technical history up to the present, and then discuss how Web3 technologists are trying to revolutionize the Web in its current iteration by solving its characteristic problems, respectively. In the following parts, (3) and (4), we’ll survey a popular Web3 sub-industry—gaming—and learn more about an entity…
Critical Crypto-Securities Issue May Soon Come to a Head in SEC v. Ripple
February 8, 2023
Critical Crypto-Securities Issue May Soon Come to a Head in SEC v. Ripple
By: Jacob Grubman
This work was originally published in Business Law Today for the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. A lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple Labs”), creator of the popular cryptocurrency token known as XRP, represents a turning point for the cryptocurrency and wider blockchain-technology industries in their relationship with regulators. As a significant part of the SEC’s…
