A more than decade-spanning fight over varying interpretations of the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 may finally be reaching its end after a Rhode Island District Court judge ruled that the US Department of Justice must formally state that the law only applies to sports betting.
The ruling, a significant victory for online poker in the US, was made in a November 2021 lawsuit filed by International Game Technology (IGT) against the DOJ in an attempt to get the justice department to clarify its position on the Wire Act and requesting "a declaratory judgment that the Department of Justice may not prosecute them for non-sports betting under the Wire Act.