{"id":103477,"date":"2019-04-23T03:53:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T10:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=103477"},"modified":"2019-04-23T05:53:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:53:56","slug":"sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheldon Adelson-backed Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling Wades into Wire Act Case with Faulty Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much of the legal battle<\/a> between the Department of Justice and the State of New Hampshire<\/a> over the new interpretation of the Wire Act will hinge on semantics and grammar, as the US First Circuit Court attempts to decipher the original intent of the law\u2019s author, back in 1961.<\/p>\n

\"Sheldon
Sheldon Adelson\u2019s Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling\u2019s attempt to help decipher the Wire Act proved to be unhelpful this week. The group has filed an amicus brief in support of the DOJ in the case. (Image: Philippe Lopez\/AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At a hearing earlier this month, Judge Paul Barbadoro described the disputed opening passage of the Wire Act as \u201ca mess of a statute\u201d and noted that sometimes people who write laws are \u201cimperfect grammarians.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG) offered its own two cents to the semantics debate with a definition of the word \u201cwhoever\u201d that defies hundreds of years of legal precedent. Hayley Hintze at Flushdraw.net reports that a supplemental filing this week by CSIG was all about the legal meaning of the very first word of the Wire Act: \u201cwhoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whoever\u2026 Whatever\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The DOJ\u2019s new interpretation of the Wire Act, which New Hampshire is seeking to have overruled by the court, reversed an Obama-era declaration that paved the way for state-sanctioned online gambling operations.<\/p>\n

The new opinion, in stating the act\u2019s prohibitions are \u201cnot uniformly limited to gambling on sporting events or contests,\u201d jeopardizes not only the online lottery operations of New Hampshire but online gaming markets across the United States.<\/p>\n

In its filing, CSIG claims that \u201cwhoever\u201d means everyone and everything, including governments and states, as well as private persons and entities. Here\u2019s why that\u2019s important in the opening Wire Act paragraph.<\/p>\n

\n

Whoever<\/strong><\/em> being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bankrolled by Adelson<\/strong><\/h2>\n

CSIG is attempting to demonstrate that states are breaking the law by offering online gambling. But as Hintze points out, this definition breaks with legal tradition. \u201cWhoever\u201d has never historically referred to government entities, which is why lawsuits against governments name prominent individuals associated with that entity, as in \u201cthe New Hampshire Lottery v <\/em>William Barr, in his official\u00a0capacity as Attorney General of\u00a0the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this specific case, for example, you cannot imprison a government or a state for \u201cnot more than two years,\u201d which would seem to make a nonsense of the CSIG claim, irrespective of the correct legal definition of the word.<\/p>\n

CSIG is an organization bankrolled by LVS casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson who has long been fixated with eradicating regulated online gambling from the US. CSIG lobbied for many years for the Restoration of America\u2019s Wire Act (RAWA), which would have banned online gaming at a federal level.<\/p>\n

RAWA was an unpopular piece of legislation because of its trammeling of states\u2019 rights, and it failed each year it was introduced to Congress. This has led many to suggest that the new DOJ opinion was performed as a favor by the Trump administration to Republican megadonor Adelson following the failure of the legislative route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of the legal battle between the Department of Justice and the State of New Hampshire over the new interpretation of the Wire Act will hinge on semantics and grammar, as the US First Circuit Court attempts to decipher the original intent of the law\u2019s author, back in 1961. At a hearing earlier this month, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":103481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,60,13699],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSheldon Adelson-backed CSIG Wades into Wire Act Case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sheldon Adelson backed Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has offered its unhelpful two cents to New Hampshire v DOJ Wire Act case.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sheldon Adelson-backed CSIG Wades into Wire Act Case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sheldon Adelson backed Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has offered its unhelpful two cents to New Hampshire v DOJ Wire Act case.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-23T10:53:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-23T12:53:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/shelda.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/\",\"name\":\"Sheldon Adelson-backed CSIG Wades into Wire Act Case\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/shelda.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-23T10:53:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-23T12:53:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Sheldon Adelson backed Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has offered its unhelpful two cents to New Hampshire v DOJ Wire Act case.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sheldon-adelson-backed-csig-wades-into-wire-act-case\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/shelda.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/shelda.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"Caption 1: Sheldon Adelson\u2019s Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling\u2019s attempt to help decipher the Wire Act proved to be unhelpful this week. 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