- The US Appellate Court granted the New Hampshire Lottery Commission an extension to file their response.
- The extension gives the New Hampshire Lottery until February 26, 2020 to respond to the DOJ’s appeal.
- The DOJ extended the forbearance period for cross-border online gaming to June 30, 2020.
Last week, the US Appellate Court for the First District granted the New Hampshire Lottery Commission and its co-plaintiffs NeoPollard Interactive LLC and Pollard Banknote Limited an extension to file their response to the US Department of Justice’s appeal in the Wire Act case.
The extension gives the New Hampshire Lottery until February 26, 2020 to respond. Originally, its response to the DOJ appellate brief (which was filled on December 20) was due 30 days later, but the New Hampshire Lottery requested additional time on the very next business day.
The case stems from a 2018 revised opinion by the DOJ claiming that the Wire Act prohibits online gambling that crosses state lines. With the complexities of the workings of the internet, even gambling that occurs within the confines in a single state could be in violation of the Wire Act under the new interpretation, as internet data typically flows outside of state boundaries.
In June last year, District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro ruled that the Wire Act applied only to sports betting and contests and effectively set aside the DOJ reinterpretation.
