GPWA Times - Issue 21 - May 2012
States should tell the DOJ to mind its own business Top gaming attorney Martin Owens delves into the legal issues surrounding Black Friday, the future of online gaming in the U.S. and “post-Constitutional America.” VN: Let’s start off with the beginning. Where were you on Black Friday and how did you hear the news? OWENS: I was just in my office. It came over the wires. It wasn’t exactly unexpected. You didn’t know what time, but you knew they were on the list. VN: So not unexpected, but as you read through the indictments, as you read through what they were charged with, what was your thought process? OWENS: It was interesting that they finally straight up charged somebody with the UIGEA instead of all this stuff about conspiracy and all the ancillary charges. But I think they’re going to have a hard time proving that because the el- ephant in the room still hasn’t been addressed, which is jurisdiction. Here’s a question: If you have Ronald Resident of State X dial up a site for gambling, let’s just call it Site Y over in the Pirate Islands. Does that, without more, es- tablish state access jurisdiction over that site? That legal question has not even been seriously analyzed, let alone answered. They’re simply assuming jurisdiction, which legally speaking, I think is a risky thing to do. If you look at what happened with what they call the Christmas present, when the Department of Justice had to issue its ruling, although I don’t know where they get off issuing rulings, we’re supposed to have courts, saying that, “Oh well, I guess the Wire Act just does cover sports betting after all.” They were forced to climb down from a false position that actually they never had any business taking. The Black Friday things are in that area too. Somebody is going to have to straighten this out once and for all: Where does the jurisdiction run, and why? VN: Given the fact that there are jurisdictional issues, are you surprised that so many people have pleaded out and how light the charges they’ve pleaded out on were? OWENS: No, because you look at it from a businessman’s point of view. He doesn’t want to roll the dice for his whole future. It’s going to cost this much and we leave you alone. OK. That’s how they deal with people who get a little funny on Wall Street. How did that work out? It’s a business decision in many cases which has allowed the DOJ to follow what has been a course [that] amounts to bullying. VN: So when the DOJ files charges like this, do you believe the plan is to file the charges, settle it out and move to the next one? Or is there an institutional belief there that what these people are doing is wrong and we’re going after them? OWENS: There is a confluence. There are some zealots in DOJ that think they’re there to protect the world from wicked gambling, al- though they’re getting fewer all the time. And the DOJ was handed an impossible task by the last Bush administration to suppress Internet gambling without the proper tools. That’s why they’ve had to rely on sheer administrative strength in all these instances. VN: So if you’re the remaining defendants in the case, you haven’t settled yet, if you’re look- ing at it from a purely legal standpoint, how would you defend yourself? OWENS: I would not make a comment like that because I don’t poach on other lawyers’ cases. I don’t tolerate it myself. I wish them all the luck and I really hope they pin their ears back, but apart from that, it’s just me talking. VN: Let’s talk about the Christmas present from the DOJ, the reversal. What does this in a broader sense give states the right to do? OWENS: Nothing they couldn’t have done before. The right of the states to deal with gambling as they please is found in the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says, “Any powers not specifically enu- “ There is going to be online gaming. Lots of it. Billions of dollars worth. The only question is do the states want to go ahead and get their piece of it. Because it’s not going to wait for them. . . . This is a global market that has come into existence and grown up without them.” 29 Where to now in the U.S. – and who’s driving ?
Made with FlippingBook
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDIzMTA=