#uigea

[thisweekingambling]

Gambling News from PokerStars and Kentucky! PokerStars has finally settled their long battle with the state of Kentucky, with roots all the way back to the 2006 law that criminalized online gambling! And in other gambling news we're heading to Las Vegas this week!

[thisweekingambling]

PokerStars Lawsuit Nets Kentucky Over $1 Billion

PokerStars Lawsuit Nets Kentucky Over $1 Billion

In another primes example of good ol’ boy politics in the 21st Century, the PokerStars lawsuit filed by the Bluegrass buddies of Kentucky will apparently cost PokerStars over $1 billion. Originally, Kentucky filed the lawsuit as a result of the poker operator accepting bets from the state post-UIGEA. The ruling in the PokerStars lawsuit case originally awarded $870 million, but was overturned on…

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[thisweekingambling]

Tribal Gaming and UIGEA Come to a Head

Tribal Gaming and UIGEA Come to a Head

The issue of Tribal Gaming and UIGEA has finally produced a legal decision. A California tribe’s desire to offer online poker and bingo games was dealt another blow last week.

The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel has been engaged in a multi-year court battle with the state of California thanks to the tribe’s launch of its the Desert Rose online bingosite in November 2014. In addition to bingo, Santa…

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[thisweekingambling]

US Senators Bring Back Online Gambling Ban

Advocates of a federal online gambling ban are framing the recent legalization of iGaming in Pennsylvania as a clear signal that the federal government needs to involve itself in gambling at the state level, in a letter sent to the Department of Justice.

The letter was co-signed by two of the usual suspects in the anti-online gambling movement, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Lindsey Graham.

This is…

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[ianimrich]

Daily fantasy sports companies have long insisted their games are not a form of betting, but a sports betting lawyer says that to people in Europe, it's clear that they are.

[ianimrich]

Online gambling supporters hit the daily double in 2017. Months after iGaming opponent Jason Chaffetz retired, UIGEA author Bob Goodlatte will join him.

Goodlatte is the latest in a string of retirements by high-profile Republican lawmakers, and just days after Virginia Republicans suffered historic electoral defeats at the state level. Goodlatte is also the second anti-online gambling congressional chair to announce his retirement this year. Earlier this year, Jason Chaffetz, the sponsor of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA), abruptly retired. 

[thisweekingambling]

After Six Years, Absolute Poker Players to be Paid

After Six Years, Absolute Poker Players to be Paid

The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that class action settlement company Garden City Group (GCG) will monitor the process for the compensation of Absolute Poker players who were not able to withdraw their funds from the online poker room after it was faced with a civil action for money laundering, illegal gambling provision, and other allegations back in 2011.

Here it is important to…

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[rbogatz-blog]

The Uncertain Future of Daily Fantasy Sports

Fresh off the news that ESPN has ended its exclusive advertising deal with DraftKings, I felt like I should further explore the world of daily fantasy sports by looking at the overall legality of the industry itself.  The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is the statute that first crafted an exemption for fantasy sports to be legal if certain criteria are met.  Essentially, fantasy sports games have to be skill-based with no outcomes being determined by single real-world teams or athletes.  This is where daily fantasy sports may be in some trouble. 

Daily fantasy sports lineups are chosen for one day of games (or one week for football) with participants having an imaginary “salary cap” that they cannot go over in order to pick their players for that specific day or week.  This helps with the argument that these games are skill-based under UIGEA. Contestants need to have knowledge of the matchups, weather conditions, home/away team, and many other factors in order to craft the team that gives them the most bang for their imaginary buck. On its face, this seems to require quite a lot of skill.  However, this is where one could make an argument that this is not skill-based but a game of chance.

Each user’s team is only going to be as good as the collective performances of each individual athlete on their team that week.  The user has absolutely no control over how each one of these players is going to perform in their game.  Athletes can get sick, injured, not play much, or a whole host of other things that can effect their overall performance.  All of these things are completely random with the argument for illegality being that no amount of skill can overcome the amount of chance that is involved in daily fantasy outcomes.  

Many state governments are ruling that daily fantasy is illegal gambling with Nevada and New York leading the charge.  If this trend continues, it is highly likely that we will see the daily fantasy industry disappear like many Internet gambling sites before it.