Pennsylvania Instructs Casinos on Wire Act Opinion

Pennsylvania gaming regulators are warning their online licensees to ensure their operations are compliant with the new US Department of Justice opinion on the 1961 Wire Act.

On Friday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) issued a memo to its online gambling licensees – none of whom have actually been cleared to launch their local sites – giving them 30 days in which to clarify how their individual operations might be affected by the DOJ’s new view on the Wire Act.

On Monday, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel made public a new legal opinion that the 1961 Wire Act applied not only to sports betting but to most forms of interstate online gambling. That opinion reversed a 2011 OLC opinion that led numerous states to launch online lottery, casino and poker products for customers within their respective borders.

Read more about how Pennsylvania is dealing with the new Wire Act opinion at Calvin Ayre.