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.
The full text of this document is available to Executive subscribers and above. See plans.