America’s intrastate online gambling operators are celebrating a federal court ruling that restricts the scope of the Wire Act to interstate sports betting.

On Monday, US District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro issued a ruling striking down the new opinion on the scope of the 1961 Wire Act – which prohibits the interstate transmission of wagering information – issued last year by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).

The DOJ’s new opinion claimed that the Wire Act applied to nearly all forms of online gambling. That directly contradicted the DOJ’s 2011 opinion on the same subject, which declared that the Wire Act applied only to sports betting, paving the way for several states to launch intrastate online casino, poker and lottery markets.

The New Hampshire Lottery Commission (NHLC) challenged that opinion, arguing that the DOJ’s new catch-all position threatened its online lottery sales and possibly even land-based sales of Powerball tickets. The DOJ tried to argue that the NHLC lacked standing to challenge the new opinion because the text didn’t explicitly target state lottery operations.

Spain’s online gambling market rose by more than one-fifth in the first quarter of 2019, despite the poker vertical’s decline.

Figures released Monday by Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) regulatory body show locally licensed online operators generated revenue of €193.2m, up a modest 2.14% from Q4 2018 but a 20.1% improvement over the first quarter of 2018.

Sequential growth in Spain’s regulated online market has been slowing over the past year, and the Q1 growth marks the lowest percentage gain since the 2.3% rise recorded in Q2 2018. However, that quarter featured the first half of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a tailwind that Q1 2019 lacked, so congratulations may be more appropriate than hand-wringing.

Online sports betting revenue was up 26.2% year-on-year to €100.8m although the percentage gain from Q4 2018 was only 0.63%. In-play betting’s share of overall betting revenue was up 11.5% from Q4 while pre-match revenue was down 11%.

New York State is still working on how to proceed with sports gambling, and support for the activity continues to grow. Commercial casinos have already weighed in on the topic and, now, the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) has given its approval to the Oneida Indian Nation to offer sports wagers at its three tribal casinos in the state.

According to an article by Casino.org, sports gambling could be coming to Point Place casino, Yellow Brick Road Casino and Turning Stone Resort Casino. The NIGC’s approval is just one step in the process, and state authorities still have to give the green light to the tribes. Tribal officials aren’t too concerned, though, and expect the state to say yes sometime before the end of the year.

According to the CEO of Oneida Nation Enterprises, Ray Halbritter, “We are proud that we will be among the first Indian nations in the country to offer sports betting, and we appreciate NIGC’s favorable determination of our partnership with Scientific Games,” adding, “We look forward to offering sports betting in the near future …”

In addition to Scientific Games, with its OpenBet platform, Caesars Entertainment has a hand in the mix, as well. Through a branding and licensing deal, the Oneida tribe will be able to establish and manage The Lounge with Caesars Sports.

If the U.K. gambling market is expected to recede, no one bothered telling BoyleSports. The Irish bookmaker has wanted to get deeper into gambling for some time and has now fulfilled its dream. It has acquired an independent gambling operator, Wilf Gilbert, which it hopes will help the company expand its offerings in a shrinking market.

According to Racing Post, BoyleSports purchased Wilf Gilbert, one of the oldest independent retail gambling chains in the U.K., for an undisclosed sum. Across the midlands, it operates 13 shops and BoyleSports hopes to be able to continue its conquest over the course of the next year to take possession of as many as 100 gambling venues.

Conor Gray, the CEO of BoyleSports, acknowledges that the acquisition is the fulfillment of one of the company’s long-term goals and adds that it will be able to deliver to the gambling community “the same quality of service and of shops” that BoyleSports has given its customers in Ireland over the years. He adds, “Of course our ambition does not end with this group of shops. We are looking for other opportunities to grow our estate and hope to add more shops over the summer months and beyond.”

The move comes at a time that the U.K. has taken measures to cut back on gambling options—if some politicians had their way, the activity would be gone for good. The government has cut the maximum amount that can be wagered on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) from £2 from £100 ($2.53 to $126) and 2,400 gambling shops owned by William Hill, Betfred and Ladbrokes Coral (now an arm of GVC Holdings) are going to close. That’s about one-quarter of the 8,423 that were registered between October 2017 and September 2018.

This is a guest contribution by Giorgi Mikhelidze. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Gaming in the Nordics is not considered as a topic of every-day life. In fact, it is on the controversial side due to the heavy regulations and restrictions that the governments have imposed on the industry. Although there are quite a lot of countries that classify as Nordic (yes even Estonia sometimes), I’ll be focusing on the most restrictive ones such as Sweden and Norway.

However, there may be some distinctions with Norway as it is the hardest market to enter, therefore the most focus will be given to them.

The gaming scene in the Nordics