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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

Lottery winner can seek bigger prize at trial, judge rulesNews Story
Lucky Larry may have a shot to win millions more this time from a jury. A judge has ordered a trial in a lawsuit filed by Iowa lottery winner Larry Dawson, who contends a $9 million jackpot that he won in 2011 should have been nearly three times as big. Dawson filed his lawsuit in 2016 after an investigation revealed that lottery contractor Eddie Tipton rigged the previous $16.5 million jackpot, bought the winning ticket himself and unsuccessfully worked with associates to claim it. Da
May 17, 2019, 12:01 pm - Lottery News

Colorado man who unwittingly split a $4.8M jackpot with scammer is fighting the Colorado LotteryNews Story
In 2005, three people won a Colorado Lotto jackpot worth $4.8 million, and Boulder's Amir Massihzadeh held one set of winning numbers. He accepted his prize of $568,990 after splitting the pot and paying taxes and moved on with life. Ten years later, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents visited Massihzadeh to interview him about his winning number because they were investigating a criminal scheme to rig lotteries. They suspected the other two ticket-holders who split the prize with Mass
Apr 15, 2019, 10:14 am - Lottery News

Florida's biggest Powerball winner sues her own son after winnings squanderedNews Story
Gloria C. Mackenzie became the largest sole lottery winner in U.S. history in mid-2013 when the then 84-year-old took home about $278 million after taxes on a $590 million Powerball ticket she bought at a Zephyrhills Publix supermarket. Five years later she sued her son Scott Mackenzie, who was her caretaker and the one who had total control over millions of dollars in winnings, saying he and his investment manager each lived off the money while poorly investing the proceeds, according to her
Apr 11, 2019, 4:02 pm - 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

Co-workers sue British Columbia man who won $1 million lottery prizeNews Story
Four co-workers are suing a Surrey, British Columbia, man for what they claim is their fair share of a $1 million lottery prize. Ding Jiu Du, Haret Dagane, Elwood Prado and Tounkham Homsombath say that on Dec. 12, 2018, they gave Hung Sengsouvanh some money left over from a contribution to an upcoming potluck Christmas party at the lighting factory where they all worked. The co-workers say they each proposed to kick in $5 to buy a $25 ticket for the Lotto Max jackpot for Dec. 14 because it
Mar 20, 2019, 2:59 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

New Hampshire sues DOJ over new Wire Act rulingNews Story
New Hampshire on Friday became the first state to legally challenge last month's U.S. Department of Justice decision to revise the Federal Wire Act, filing a federal lawsuit that would halt enforcement of the opinion that could keep the state from selling lottery tickets online. The state is asking a U.S. District Court judge to vacate the 23-page opinion from the Department's Office of Legal Counsel, confirm that the Wire Act does not apply to state lotteries, and permanently keep the Justic
Feb 15, 2019, 5:25 pm - Lottery News