( Mashable ) -- Online lotteries and poker may be poised to become legal thanks to a new decision by the Justice Department reinterpreting the Wire Act of 1961 . The decision , written in September but made public last Friday , found the Act 's prohibition of wagers via telecommunications crossing state lines or international borders refers only to bets on a `` sporting event or contest '' and not to lottery tickets sold online . The decision does n't mention online poker , but some reason that the ruling will pave the way for online poker . `` The United States Department of Justice has given the online gaming community a big , big present , '' Prof . I. Nelson Rose wrote on his blog , Gambling and the Law . `` If the Wire Act is limited to bets on sports events and races , what other federal anti-gambling statutes are left ? '' wrote Rose . `` There are prohibitions on interstate lotteries , but Powerball and the other multi-state lotteries show how easily these can be gotten around , even before Congress passed an express exemption for state lotteries . And poker is not a lottery under federal law . '' Rose continued that since the Wire Act refers to bets on an event , poker would be except because poker is itself the event . The DOJ has aggressively enforced the ban on online poker . In April , the agency shut down three foreign-based online poker firms -- Absolute Poker , Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker -- charging that each of the companies had violated the law by serving U.S. residents . © 2013 MASHABLE.com . All rights reserved .
The Act 's prohibition of wagers via telecommunications refers to bets on a `` sporting event or contest '' The Wire Act refers to bets on an event , poker would be except because poker is itself the event . Comment: