Quoted

Jul 28, 2025

Washington Post Quotes Jeff Ifrah on Mystery LLC Threatening D.C. Sports Betting Industry

Jeff Ifrah was quoted in a recent Washington Post article about a mysterious Delaware-based LLC using a 300-year-old British law to target major sports betting companies operating in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit, filed under the historic “Statute of Anne,” seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling losses from industry giants like Caesars Sportsbook, BetMGM, and DraftKings.

As Jeff explained to the Post, the Statute of Anne originated from an era when “Gambling wasn’t regulated —all gambling was essentially illegal. And the problem was that the state was being left responsible for widows and orphans that were left behind when their fathers and husbands had been taken out because of gambling debts.” Furthermore, if the lawsuit were to succeed, regulated operators would simply leave the District and take the tax revenue they generate for DC with them.

Jeff also revealed that iDEA, the leading online gaming trade association in the U.S. for which he serves as General Counsel, is tracking similar cases in Ohio, Illinois, and South Carolina where similar instances of vague LLCs are trying to revive the 18th-century law, making this part of a broader legal trend affecting the regulated sports betting industry nationwide.