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DOJ issues new opinion on Wire Act

The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel has issued a replacement for its 2011 opinion, saying that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting.

The opinion, first reported by Online Poker Report, was not posted online by the Department of Justice, which has not been updating its website during the partial government shutdown.

The 23-page opinion, dated Nov. 2, notes that attorneys “do not lightly depart” from prior staff members who formed the earlier opinion.

“Based upon the plain language of the statute, however, we reach a different result,” wrote Steven Engel, assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel.

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