The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is upholding a lower court ruling that the New Hampshire Lottery Commission can continue to sell lottery tickets online, despite a challenge by the Trump Administration.
The case centers on an opinion released by the Department of Justice in 2018 that found online lottery ticket sales violated the Wire Act, which was signed into law in 1961. The Office of Legal Counsel’s decision was a reversal of its own 2011 memo that cleared the way for online lottery sales.
New Hampshire, which launched online lottery sales based on the 2011 guidelines, filed a legal challenge to the federal government in federal court. NeoPollard Interactive, which the N.H. Lottery Commission contracts to provide online lottery gaming, also joined the suit.