Author: Andy Nelson

Back in February, patron-saint lawyer of sports betting Ted Olson, as well as a few gambling pundits on Twitter, advanced a proposition. They said the First Circuit Court of Appeals had held that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting. We explained that while the First Circuit did make a statement to this effect, it was dicta, which is not binding even on…

New Jersey sports betting nearly caught Nevada in April, and it appears the Garden State could do so in May. The state saw $318.9 million in wagers last month. In May 2018, Nevada sports betting set a record for handle in that month with $315.5 million. That opens the possibility that NJ sports betting could pass Nevada in terms of wagers this month. Nevada…

Hello, ladies and gents, and welcome back to your regularly scheduled tour of the US sports betting landscape. It’s been too long since we last spun our lasso in the air, so we figured we’d toss out a surprise Tuesday edition for you. Considering what has transpired in recent weeks, an unusual maneuver like this only seems fitting. Several state legislatures have recently reached…

At the recent Sports Lawyers Association Conference in Phoenix, representatives from the four major sports leagues talked about the future of player tracking and biometric data. The issue most recently popped up late last year when the now-defunct Alliance of American Football (AAF) planned to put wearable technology on its players to collect such information for wagering purposes. The four US pro leagues have…

The people of Louisiana will not have the opportunity to approve legal sports betting in their state this year. After straddling the fence for a few days, lawmakers failed to pass a Louisiana sports betting bill on the final day of the session. Even worse, failure to approve for the daily fantasy sports tax mechanism seems to leave that industry in limbo too. The initial purpose of H…

SugarHouse Casino recently became the first to market in Pennsylvania online sports betting, opening its digital doors to bettors via its website PlaySugarHouse.com as well as the SugarHouse Sportsbook PA app for Android mobile devices. Conspicuously absent, however, is an iOS app for iPhone/iPad. They’re not the only ones, either. PlayPennsylvania reports that multiple operators have been having similar difficulties. It’s known that this…

The rapid pace of legal sports betting news makes it feel like Disney‘s acquisition of a stake in DraftKings happened years ago. The deal, in fact, took place just in the past month as an offshoot of the massive Fox Bet tie-up with The Stars Group. The Legal Sports Report team examines the pressing questions about the Disney-DraftKings relationship: Why did Disney take on…

Daily fantasy sports is coming back to Alabama. More than three years after DFS was declared to be illegal gambling by the state's attorney general, companies like DraftKings and FanDuel are getting ready to re-enter the market. Alabama and daily fantasy Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law, as first reported by Bloomberg Tax. That came after the legislature passed the bill in…

The moment we have been waiting for since Feb. 15 has finally arrived, as we have a Wire Act memo decision from the New Hampshire District Court. This afternoon, Judge Paul Barbadoro said: I hereby declare that § 1084(a) of the Wire Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1084(a), applies only to transmissions related to bets or wagers on a sporting event or contest. The 2018…

Political will is building for Illinois sports betting with Republicans and Democrats in both chambers and the governor working toward passing a comprehensive gambling expansion bill including sports betting by Friday's deadline, even if language for the legislation doesn't yet exist. Background on Illinois Gambling Legislation Illinois has a long history with gambling legislation. Legalized riverboat casinos have been part of the landscape since…