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U.S. Regional News
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The Unacceptable Results of the Current Directive Law
22 Feb 2012 by Daniel Rubin / No Comments
In examining the health care proxy, it was discovered that affording the full control to proxy only when the patient is incapacitated, could lead to the proxy being unclear as to what exactly the wishes of the patient are. Additionally, the patient may change his mind over time, and discuss these changes with his proxy, yet not reflect these alterations in the form, which delegated the power initially.
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D.C.’s iGaming Craps Out Before Rolling the Dice
22 Feb 2012 by Andrew Fleischman / No Comments
April 15, 2011. Black Friday. A date that will live in infamy. Well, at least in the hearts and minds of online gambling enthusiasts, for that is the day that the FBI shutdown the three leading online poker sites, effectively ending all online gambling operations in the U.S. But then, only several days later, a ray of sunlight pierced the post-shutdown fallout: the District of Columbia had become the first in the nation to legalize online gambling!
Excitement surrounding the D.C. plan, known as iGaming, spread quickly. Officials in D.C. promptly rolled out the infrastructure and regulations to facilitate the nation’s first intrastate online casino. Industry insiders had high hopes that the plan’s success would lead other states to pass similar legislation. While some doubted the plan’s legality, the DOJ reversed its position on the Wire Act in late December 2011, clearing the way for iGaming’s launch. From the outside, all seemed well with the plan. But in February 2012, much to the chagrin of, well, pretty much everyone except for those that made the decision, D.C. pulled the plug on iGaming, killing the initiative.
As the Grateful Dead so sagely advised in the song Truckin’, “the cards ain’t worth a dime if you don’t lay ‘em down.” D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi projected iGaming to generate $14 million in tax revenue alone for the District in the program’s first two years. So what could possibly halt D.C. from playing its valuable hand?
Good ole fashioned shady politics. While the D.C. council “legalized” online gambling, hardly anyone in the council seemed to realize. See, in December 2010, when the council was voting on a several-hundred-pages-long budget bill, Councilmember Michael Brown slipped in an unnoticed amendment that simply extended the D.C. lottery to also apply to “games offered over the Internet.” Usually when passing groundbreaking legislation, or really anything significant for that matter, there is a public vetting process. I guess Michael Brown didn’t get the memo. Essentially, no one noticed the teeny amendment and when the bill passed under a tight deadline, Vincent Gray signed it into law rather than squabble over a small piece of the gigantic budget.
When word got out that D.C. legalized online gambling without most council members realizing or any public vetting, there was a slight public backlash, but not anything that supporters expected would derail the initiative. But as opponents of the law dug a little deeper, the other shoe dropped as an investigation exposed the shady manner in which the D.C. lottery contract was awarded. It turns out the majority winner of the lottery contract to operate the online casino was a D.C. businessman with absolutely no gambling experience. On top of that, he planned to operate the casino out of his mother’s duplex. While money undoubtedly exchanged hands in some back room meeting in this blatant “pay-to-play” deal, D.C. officials are currently grappling with the idea of referring the investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Regardless of whether the D.C. officials will be held accountable, the scandal thus marks the death knell of iGaming. What was once viewed as a huge potential momentum builder for the world of online gambling has instead become another black eye for an industry that just can’t seem to catch a break. So long iGaming – looks like you crapped out before you even rolled the dice.
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Who’s Responsible for Player Safety? The NFL’s Million Dollar Question
20 Feb 2012 by Michael Wess / No Comments
A case involving the death of Korey Stringer, a former player with the Minnesota Vikings, provides an instructive illustration. Stringer’s death resulted from heat stroke he suffered during training camp. The court found that plaintiff’s wrongful death claim was inextricably intertwined the CBA because it covered the NFL’s duty to instruct team trainers, doctors, and coaches about heat-related illnesses, thus rendering it preempted.
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Tribler Increases the Incentive for “Copyright Trolling” Lawsuits
17 Feb 2012 by Tony Niescier / No Comments
The federal shutdown of Megaupload and arrest of its owner Kim Dotcom last month has triggered a panic in the filesharing community. Several popular bittorrent communities have abruptly shut down, including Btjunkie, Cheggit, and Fileporn. File-locker service Filesonic disabled file sharing, and Uploaded.to blocked traffic from the U.S. Other vulnerable site owners are surely considering similar measures.
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Enhancing Airlines Passenger Protections: Baggage Fees
17 Feb 2012 by Sean Barry / No Comments
In recent years airline passengers have been disgruntled by the emergence of baggage fees, overweight luggage fees, and the variety of other fees that used to be included in the airfare. Airlines make considerable revenue from ancillary fees, which include baggage fees. In the second quarter 2012 the U.S. Airlines collected a total of 887 million dollars in baggage fees.
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How Iran Fooled Us Twice
16 Feb 2012 by Zach Novetsky / No Comments
Recently, Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, claimed that Iran has not launched an “aggressive war in modern history (unlike the US or Israel),” a claim only outmatched in error by Yousaf Butt’s assertion that Iran has adhered to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for four-decades.
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Tweeting for Tickets: Another Reason NCAA Division I Athletes Should Be Paid
16 Feb 2012 by Katherine DeStefano / No Comments
College athletic programs have developed new forms of revenue growth with the popularity and convenience of social media. For instance, the University of Michigan has created a Twitter account that recognizes a special hashtag fans can mention in their Twitter posts if they want tickets to sporting events. While this increase in revenue benefits the collegiate institutions, the controversy truly lies between the colleges and universities and the student-athletes, who are not reaping the benefits from the tickets they help sell.
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Students Use of Social Media a Form of Expression or Form of Expulsion?
06 Feb 2012 by Katherine DeStefano / No Comments
Two weeks ago, Yuri Wright, the 40th ranked recruit for the football class of 2012, was expelled from his high school for sexually explicit and racially charged Twitter posts. While his expulsion from Don Bosco Prep High School in Ramsey, New Jersey forced some schools to stop recruiting Wright, he still managed to secure a college scholarship from Colorado.
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“Copyright Trolling” Bears Risks for Attorneys
03 Feb 2012 by Tony Niescier / No Comments
New technology brings new forms of litigation in its wake. Internet technologies such as BitTorrent have made commonplace the unauthorized copying of music and movies on a massive scale. Content owners, in response, have begun to file massive lawsuits against thousands of John Doe defendants.
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Internet Gambling Coming to a State Near You? What the DOJ’s Change of Heart Means for the Immediate Future of Internet Gambling
03 Feb 2012 by Andrew Fleischman / 3 Comments
Reeling from the federal shutdown of the three biggest Internet gambling websites in April 2011, there was little confidence left in the online gambling industry that the U.S. was any closer to legalizing online gambling as 2012 neared. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) offered a glimmer of hope to states seeking to legalize intrastate online gambling, but the statute seemingly left the Wire Act’s prohibitions in tact.
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