Gaming executive calls Justice Department’s opinion on Wire Act ‘perplexing’

The CEO of MGM Resorts International on Wednesday denounced a Department of Justice (DOJ) opinion endangering the legality of online gambling. 

The opinion, which was made public by the DOJ last month, reversed an Obama-era opinion declaring that the ban applied only to sports gambling. It interprets the federal Wire Act to apply to any form of gambling that crosses state lines.

{mosads}“This latest missive from the DOJ is perplexing,” Jim Murren, the CEO, said Monday during an earnings call, according to the Associated Press.

”… So, it’s just, we think, an absurdly poorly written and unenforceable opinion, and I don’t think anyone in the industry, the gaming industry, the sports betting industry, feels any differently,” Murren added. 

The Obama administration in 2011 said that the Wire Act applied exclusively to sports gambling, but the recent DOJ decision would extend the ban to all online gambling. 

The DOJ opinion attracted criticism last month because casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a GOP megadonor who is among Trump’s largest donors, previously lobbied for the DOJ to change its interpretation of the law.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, during testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee last week, denied that the decision to reinterpret the law had been “corrupted” by Adelson, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Your inferences on how that process was corrupted or corrupt is absolutely wrong,” Whitaker said after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) questioned whether Adelson had “corrupted” the decision.

“And the premise of your question I reject,” Whitaker added, according to the Review-Journal.

The DOJ is delaying enforcement of its recent opinion until April, according to the AP.