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iMEGA online gambling ruling issued today
One story that we have been anxiously following is the status of the iMEGA legal challenge to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), happening in New Jersey. A decision was supposed to come out in December, but was delayed.
Well, we wait no longer... the decision came out this afternoon.
We are still mulling over the decision (which can be viewed here) but this is what we think we can decipher...
In short: The complaint was basically dismissed, but iMEGA won some key points.
Here's the background:
iMEGA is the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association. When the UIGEA passed, they wanted to challenge the law, but were unable due to some arcane legal technicalities regarding their status. So they went to court to fight for the right to challenge the law, among other complaints.
In the decision released today, Judge Mary L. Cooper, of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, threw out the complaint, but granted iMEGA the standing to challenge the UIGEA.
But why is this important?
According to iMEGA's lawyer, Judge Cooper ruling stated that despite the passage of UIGEA, online gambling is only illegal in states where a statute specifically exists.
To put that in perspective, as of this writing we believe (we could be wrong) only Washington State has a statute that specifically addresses online gambling, and that statute is being challenged as well.
Finally, the decision also mentions, in fairly plain legalese, "Notwithstanding UIGEA, the plaintiff and its members remain free to promote Internet gambling; nothing in the challenged statute implicates the plaintiff's expressive activities in this regard."
While we are not sure if this was the statute being used to hinder Uadvertising, at first glance it sounds like we can probably expect online gambling sites to start flooding the TV again.
We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what the legal pundits have to say about this developing story.
One story that we have been anxiously following is the status of the iMEGA legal challenge to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), happening in New Jersey. A decision was supposed to come out in December, but was delayed.
Well, we wait no longer... the decision came out this afternoon.
We are still mulling over the decision (which can be viewed here) but this is what we think we can decipher...
In short: The complaint was basically dismissed, but iMEGA won some key points.
Here's the background:
iMEGA is the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association. When the UIGEA passed, they wanted to challenge the law, but were unable due to some arcane legal technicalities regarding their status. So they went to court to fight for the right to challenge the law, among other complaints.
In the decision released today, Judge Mary L. Cooper, of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, threw out the complaint, but granted iMEGA the standing to challenge the UIGEA.
But why is this important?
According to iMEGA's lawyer, Judge Cooper ruling stated that despite the passage of UIGEA, online gambling is only illegal in states where a statute specifically exists.
To put that in perspective, as of this writing we believe (we could be wrong) only Washington State has a statute that specifically addresses online gambling, and that statute is being challenged as well.
Finally, the decision also mentions, in fairly plain legalese, "Notwithstanding UIGEA, the plaintiff and its members remain free to promote Internet gambling; nothing in the challenged statute implicates the plaintiff's expressive activities in this regard."
While we are not sure if this was the statute being used to hinder Uadvertising, at first glance it sounds like we can probably expect online gambling sites to start flooding the TV again.
We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what the legal pundits have to say about this developing story.
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