Article · Commercial

From Murphy to Mobile: How Sports Betting Became a Fifty-State Regulatory Problem

18 U.S.C. § 1084

Type
Article
Jurisdiction
National
Date
2025-07-28
Topic
Commercial

In 2018 the Supreme Court struck down the federal statute that had frozen sports betting outside Nevada, and did it on federalism grounds that had nothing to do with gambling. This article traces what happened next. It starts with the three elements that define gambling everywhere, prize, chance, and consideration, and shows how removing any one of them produces a lawful promotion. It then covers the federal statutes that operated before and after Murphy v. NCAA, including the Wire Act and its two contradictory Justice Department opinions and the First Circuit decision that resolved them, the payment-processing regime of UIGEA, and the felony statutes that reach unlicensed operators. Later sections cover tribal gaming under IGRA and the compact litigation that followed Florida's hub-and-spoke mobile wagering model, the skill-versus-chance frontier running through daily fantasy sports, prediction markets, sweepstakes casinos and loot boxes, the sweepstakes and contest rules that govern ordinary consumer promotions, and the anti-money-laundering, advertising, and responsible gaming obligations that now define the compliance burden.

From Murphy to Mobile: How Sports Betting Became a Fifty-State Regulatory Problem

Commercial > Gaming and Gambling | Published 28 July 2025 - Updated 9 March 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

In brief. Gambling in America is state law wearing a federal overcoat. The federal statutes mostly police the edges — wires, payments, and unlicensed operators — while the states decide what may be offered, by whom, and on what terms. In 2018 the Supreme Court removed the one federal statute that had frozen the picture, and fifty legislatures started moving at once.

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