Week 6: Law & Internet Seminar (LAW 745)

Jurisdiction, Choice of Law, and the Plight of the Regulator

We will focus on Internet Gambling as an example of a more general problem facing would-be regulators. In going through the reading, try to put yourself in the shoes of (1) a regulator; (2) a prosecutor attempting to enforce a regulation; (3) the defense attorney for the casino and/or its customer.

Reading:

You may wish to review your civil procedure notes about personal jurisdiction, minimum contacts and choice of law. In particular, think about the limits due process may impose on the exercise of jurisdiction by a U.S. court (e.g. Asahi Metal Industry v. Superior Court, 480 U.S. 102 (1987)). With that under your belt, look at the examples in this essay on What Jurisdiction Controls?

An example of the problem: Gambling Web Sites.

Read (at least) Part III: THE LAWS CURRENTLY GOVERNING GAMBLING OVER THE INTERNET of Britta Gordon, Gaming on the Internet: The Odds are on the House, but How Long Will it Last? in order to get a sense of the applicable federal laws.

Can you tell where these sites are located?

Bet and Win ! or Covers.com.

As of 2/16/98 this link was broken. Stay tuned for a substitute! Is this legal notice sufficient? (Now, think about from which viewpoint you answered that question...)
Choose a couple of links from the large list of online betting opportunities.. or the Euro Nambling list of Internet Gambling in Europe.

Why might a player care about location?
Why might a regulator care?
Can you tell if the sites are honest? Is there any way to tell short of placing a winning bet?

Four Attorney General's Opinions

The Florida Attorney General's Opinion on Internet Gambling (October 18, 1995).
Minnesota Attorney General's Office, Memorandum on Internet Jurisdiction (July 1995). Here's another copy.
The Kansas Attorney General's Opinion (March, 1996)
The Texas Attorney General's Opinion (May, 1995)

The decision of the Minnesota court of appeal in the Granite Gate case. Here's another copy brought to you by a gambling industry trade journal.
US v. Thomas, 74 F.3d 701 (6th Cir. 1996). Here's another copy. Here's an article by Mike Godwin of the EFF on the case. If (optionally) you want to know more -- lots more -- you can visit the EFF archive on the case.
Dan Burk, Federalism in Cyberspace, 28 Conn. L. Rev. 1095 (1996) [Note: this is a pdf file. You may need the Acrobat plug-in if you are doing this from off-campus; network machines should have the plug-in pre-installed.

Doing:

Keep working on those papers...

Optional

An interesting collection of international information, including many links relating to the legal and technical issues, is found at Arajan's Interactive Gambling Corner at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. It is, however, pretty much uniformly pro-gambling.
Beth Berselli, Gamblers Log on to Deal On
"Lou", An Offshore Sportsbook Primer
He Tries to Draw Legal Borders in Cyberspace
Dan Burk, Jurisdiction in a World Without Borders
Project Censored Canada:Karla Homolka
CompuServe Inc. v. Patterson, No. C2-94-91, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20352 (S.D. Ohio Aug. 11, 1994) (dismissing for want of personal jurisdiction), motion for reconsideration denied, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7530 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 23, 1995).
Pres-Kap, Inc. v. System One, Direct Access, Inc., 636 So. 2d 1351 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1994).
David Post, Anarchy, State, and the Internet: An Essay on Law-Making in Cyberspace
Prof. Stephen Saxby's A Jurisprudence for Information Technology Law.
Marc L. Caden & Stephanie E. Lucas, Accidents On the Information Superhighway: On-Line Liability And Regulation, 2 RICH. J.L. & TECH. 3 (1996).
If you have lost all your civil procedure notes, this nice student paper by Shawn Edwards of the South Texas Law School may jog memories, especially Part Three.
Read about the big money to be made on on-line gambling.
The "legal pad" has a nice page of internet gambling law links
An article about virtual casinos from the Los Angeles Daily News
Some of the background to the Minnesota litigation:

Here's a a short article on a consumer fraud suit against Vegas.com.
Minnesota's brief on jurisdictional issues in State v. Granite Gate. You can also see the complaint in this case if you would like.
Complaints filed in Minnesota (don't panic: they're short). Pay particular attention to the facts alleged and the causes of action.

State v. McClendon
State v. Dean. Note the "John Doe" part of the complaint.
State v. Excel Intl. et al. Note the venue allegation!

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Last modified: Feb. 16, 1998