Reading Room Document

Whether the Wire Act Applies to Non-Sports Gambling

Interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a "sporting event or contest" fall outside the reach of the Wire Act. Because the proposed New York and Illinois lottery proposals do not involve wagering on sporting events or contests, the Wire Act does not prohibit them. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/olc/file/2011-09-20-wire-act-non-sports-gambling/download.

September 20, 2011