and Village Trustee and President of Teamsters Local 707 can't ask the New York State Attorney General for a FREE OPINION so that New York Bettors can bet at the OTBs in New York 365 days of the year. Something is wrong!
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would tell us all that he won't defend the constitutionality of NY PML Sec 105 and that it does not even apply to the OTBs. Is it any wonder New York State is functionally bankrupt and the dues of union members fund New York politicians who can't do anything simple or even perhaps useful?
* MEDIA & MARKETING
* DECEMBER 24, 2011
Justice Opinion Finds Room for Web Gambling
By ALEXANDRA BERZON And JOE PALAZZOLO
The Justice Department indicated many forms of online gambling could become legal under federal law in a sweeping opinion that appeared to reverse long-held policy and potentially opens important new business opportunities for companies seeking to profit from Internet wagering.
In a letter dated in September but posted on its website Friday, the department's Office of Legal Counsel said it determined that the Federal Wire Act—the 1961 law that had been interpreted to outlaw all forms of gambling across state lines—applies only to "a sporting event or contest."
That could open up opportunities for states to legalize Internet poker and other types of online gambling, which have proven popular but operate in a legal gray area and are typically run by offshore operators.
The opinion does not automatically legalize online gambling because individual states would still have to legalize and regulate the practice and form compacts with one another to allow bets between the states, legal experts said Friday. So far, only Nevada allows Internet poker within its borders, while Washington, D.C., has given a green light for online poker by the lottery. Other locales have recently considered bills to legalize online poker.
However, it represents "a clear change" in Justice Department policy, said Dennis Ehling, an Internet gambling expert and a partner in Blank Rome LLP, a Los Angeles-based law firm that represents online-gambling operator Absolute Poker. That company was a target of a federal enforcement action in April.
"This is a boon for a lot of operators," Mr. Ehling added.The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The department has long indicated it considers online gambling illegal under the Wire Act, despite a previous federal court ruling that the law doesn't ban online wagering other than sports betting. Justice has taken a series of criminal and civil actions against Web-gambling companies, though it sometimes relied on statutes applying to bank fraud, money laundering or illegal gambling.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Act, passed in 2006, allows federal authorities to prosecute people who knowingly accept most forms of payment in connection with unlawful Web gambling. But it doesn't apply to any legal forms of online gambling. After it passed, many online poker concerns, including some traded publicly, pulled operations out of the U.S.
Many of the biggest sites that kept operating were hit by criminal and civil cases filed in April by the Justice Department, forcing them to end U.S. operations.
The new opinion could have broad implications for efforts by casinos, software companies, state lotteries and other firms to conduct legal Web gambling. It could prompt Congress or statehouses to take action on pending bills that seek to explicitly legalize and regulate forms of online gambling.
The ruling was issued in response to a question regarding whether proposals from the Illinois and New York lotteries selling lottery tickets on the Internet violate the Wire Act.
—Tamara Audi contributed to this article.
Write to Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com
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