A new ruling that allows states to operate online casinos, poker rooms and other online gambling operations.
This ruling reverses years of precedent that said all forms of Internet gambling violate the 1961 Federal Wire Act. The act was invoked in 2005 to prevent Illinois from operating an Internet lottery. In 2007, U.S. Attorney told the House Committee on the Judiciary that the federal government viewed “all forms of online gambling” as “illegal under federal law.”