Get In Line!!
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continues to fight back
against the Department of Justice’s new Wire Act opinion.
Its latest move is to join a lawsuit challenging the validity of the
new Wire Act take, which now threatens every form of online
gambling in the country.
PA STARTED WITH A LETTER TO THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
First, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro co-authored a letter
to the Trump administration along with the New Jersey Attorney General
Gurbir Grewal. In the letter, the two bluntly state that “the latest reversal
is wrong.”
Since that mid-February letter, the challengers of the new opinion keep
cropping up.
NH LOTTERY INITIATED LAWSUIT
New Hampshire Lottery filed a lawsuit on Feb. 15 seeking an
emergency injunction to enforcement of the new opinion. The NH Lottery
supplier Pollard Banknote filed a separate suit on the same day.
Since then, the court consolidated the suits into a single action.
Additional plaintiffs and those seeking to file an amicus brief had
until midnight on Friday to submit.
PA SEEKING CO-PLAINTIFF STATUS
Late on Friday, the Commonwealth, acting through the Department
of Revenue and Pennsylvania Lottery filed a request to join the suit,
per Online Poker Report.
Like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania Lottery offers online lottery games
in addition to standard lottery fair. Nonetheless, in the brief, the
Commonwealth noted that even the big draw games like Powerball are
now at risk:
“Given the use of wire transmissions for
Pennsylvania Lottery games as described
above, the broadest interpretation of the
2018 Opinion could result in the suspension
of all state lottery sales, resulting in an
immediate annual loss of over $1 billion in
Lottery proceeds that benefit older
Pennsylvanians.”
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NEW JERSEY FILES AMICUS BRIEFS
Pennsylvania Lottery was not the only group that filed paperwork
on Friday. The state of New Jersey, where online casino,
online poker, and online sports betting is fully operational, filed an
amicus brief.
Like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, New Jersey fears the new
Wire Act opinion allows for such broad application that even
intrastate gambling is at risk.
The reason for this is the issue of intermediary routing. Yes, when
you play an online lottery game in Pennsylvania, you may start a
transaction at your computer or phone and it may end on the PA Lottery
servers, but in the path from one to another, the transaction could end
up briefly out of state.
Those worried about the scope of the Wire Act suggest that a strict view
of intrastate gaming with no intermediary routing would render just about
all internet transactions in violation of the law.
MICHIGAN AND OTHER LOTTERIES FOLLOW SUIT
Additionally, the state of Michigan and the Michigan Lottery filed an
amicus brief. The paperwork was signed by the state of Michigan as well
as these other groups:
Kentucky Lottery Corporation
Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation
Virginia Lottery
Rhode Island Lottery
Colorado State Lottery Division
North Carolina Education Lottery
State of Delaware
State of Idaho
State of Vermont
State of Mississippi
State of Alaska
District of Columbia
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE CASE?
Pennsylvania Lottery filed to be a co-plaintiff, but that is not a
guaranteed thing. The court will first need to rule on whether or
not PA should be allowed to join the case.
The focus on state lotteries makes sense as a strategy given the
massive sums of money that go to the state from lottery proceeds.
It is important to note that New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and
Michigan all have online lotteries in addition to standard lotto fare.
GET NOTIFIED WHEN PA LAUNCHES ONLINE POKER AND CASINO GAMES
DON'T MISS OUT!
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