[20190306]LSB10269_司法部撤销赌博法.pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Justice Department Reverses Stand on Gambling Statute March 6, 2019 In January, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced that the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) had determined that a federal gambling statute, the so-called Wire Act, applied to both sports gambling and non-sports gambling. The OLC opinion reversed an earlier pronouncement issued in 2011. The 2011 OLC Memorandum itself had contradicted a long-held understanding within the Justice Department. The Deputy Attorney General instructed the federal prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation to delay acting on the change of interpretation for 90 days to “give businesses that relied on the 2011 OLC Memorandum time to bring their operations into compliance with federal law.” Media accounts report that the recent interpretation may impact emerging interstate internet gambling ventures including internet poker and state lotteries. The Issue The Wire Act, parsed, enumerated, and with emphasis added for purposes of discussion, states in pertinent part: Whoever being engaged in the business of betting o