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Massachusetts retailers resist Lottery's push for online salesNews Story
The Massachusetts Lottery's technological systems are on par with an old, wall-mounted rotary phone outdated and inconvenient, but it still works while customers increasingly expect to be linked to the world through a smartphone at all times, the agency's executive director told lawmakers last week. Holding up a large, black rotary phone, Executive Director Michael Sweeney made his latest pitch to lawmakers to allow the Mass. Lottery to offer its current products scratch tickets, draw games,
Jul 8, 2019, 8:57 am - Lottery News

Mississippi Lottery targets Dec. 1 startup dateNews Story
The Mississippi Lottery Corporation says it plans for stores to be selling scratch-off lottery tickets by Dec. 1. That's the target date, said Gerard Gibert, vice chairman of the lottery board. It could be a little before, or a little after we haven't selected the vendors yet... But the plan is to have scratch-offs in as many retailers as possible by Dec. 1. Gibert said the plan is to come out with regular state drawing tickets sometime in the first quarter of 2020, and multi-state ticke
Jun 30, 2019, 8:50 am - Lottery News

Pennsylvania Lottery struggles to attract bets on virtual sports gamesNews Story
The Pennsylvania Lottery has more than 1,850 outlets with screens displaying virtual animated football and auto races. The odds of finding someone watching a bet play out on the simulated sports action is pretty low. With a few exceptions, lottery licensees in the region report few customers are spending their time or money on the Xpress Sports games lottery officials introduced in August. Xpress Football offers the chance to bet from $1 to $20 each on up to 16 possible outcomes such as a
Jun 27, 2019, 11:00 am - Lottery News

New Hampshire wins Wire Act lawsuitNews Story
Federal judge to DOJ: Wire Act only applies to sports betting New Hampshire has won its lawsuit against the US Department of Justice clarifying the scope of a 1961 federal gambling law. In a 60-page ruling issued Monday, US District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro rejected a 2018 opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel which expanded the Wire Act to broadly cover interstate online gambling. The previous interpretation from 2011 applies narrowly to sports betting. The judge handed the DOJ a
Jun 5, 2019, 6:39 pm - Lottery News

Lawmaker: Alabama lottery bill 'dead' for sessionNews Story
An Alabama lottery bill is defunct for the legislative session, a key lawmaker said Wednesday. It's dead for this session. It won't be coming back this session, said Republican Rep. Steve Clouse, who was shepherding the bill in the House of Representatives. The bill hit a politically fatal mix of conservative opposition to gambling and liberals' feuds over electronic gambling and how to use lottery revenue. Clouse said they do not have the 63 bipartisan votes needed to pass the measure in
May 23, 2019, 11:48 am - Lottery News

Alabama Senate passes lottery billNews Story
Without a vote to spare, a plan to let Alabama voters have their say on a state lottery for the first time in 20 years stayed alive today. The Alabama Senate passed the bill by a vote of 21-12. Twenty-one was the minimum number for passage because the bill is a proposed constitutional amendment, requiring approval of three-fifths of the 35 senators. The bill moves to the House, where it faces the same three-fifths requirement. If it wins final passage, it would go on the ballot for voters
Apr 26, 2019, 8:14 am - Lottery News

DOJ 'did not address' lotteries in Wire Act opinion, Deputy AG Rosenstein says in memoNews Story
A new memo from the US Department of Justice says that state lotteries are not at all impacted by the DOJ's reinterpretation of the Wire Act, a development that could mean the end of a federal court case brought earlier this year. (See New Hampshire sues DOJ over new Wire Act ruling, Lottery Post, Feb. 15, 2019.) The latest filing from the DOJ can be found below, including a memo signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. There, he talks about the Office of Legal Counsel opinion off
Apr 10, 2019, 4:23 pm - Lottery News

NJ joins DOJ lawsuit over Wire Act interpretationNews Story
New Jersey is joining New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and several lottery companies in a suit seeking to invalidate the U.S. Department of Justice's legal ruling last year which critics said could hurt the state's multibillion-dollar online gaming and sports betting industries, Attorney Gurbir Grewal announced Monday. Grewal, in the amicus brief filed March 8 in the United States District Court for New Hampshire, is seeking nationwide relief of the DOJ's reinterpretation of the federal Wire Act
Mar 12, 2019, 9:18 am - Lottery News

Appeal almost inevitable in Wire Act reinterpretation case, expert saysNews Story
Big changes could be on the horizon for the gaming industry if the January reinterpretation of the federal Wire Act becomes a U.S. Justice Department mandate. But how likely is that to happen? Three law professors at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law tackled that question Thursday in a Moot Court presentation. Broadly, the reinterpretation could further restrict internet gambling. The Justice Department reversed some of the stances it made in 2011, when it interpreted the law to ba
Mar 11, 2019, 9:43 am - Lottery News

State lotteries line up against DOJ reversal on Wire ActNews Story
State lotteries continue to fight back against a January Department of Justice reversal of its interpretation of the Wire Act, threatening every form of online gambling in the country. (See DOJ reverses 2011 opinion of the Wire Act; legal online gaming in question, Lottery Post, Jan. 14, 2019.) Now the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania joined a New Hampshire lawsuit challenging the validity of the new Wire Act opinion. Before joining the lawsuit, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro co
Mar 11, 2019, 9:26 am - Lottery News