U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and lawyers for the NFL in legal arguments over the past decade have both said that they "consider sports betting as a game of skill, an important legal distinction that could shape the expanded legalization of wagering on American sports," according to documents cited by Ryan Rodenberg of ESPN.com. Documents show that both the DOJ and NFL outside counsel "made statements in support of traditional sports gambling as being skill-based in legal proceedings" in '03 and '13, respectively. Skill-based contests "are more likely to be permitted under federal and state law." In an '03 memo submitted during Delaware's legislative process, longtime NFL outside counsel Covington & Burling "characterized the proposed football-based lottery as predominately skill-based, and thus would be barred by the state's own constitution." Lynch, who in '13 was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, "pointed to prominent Las Vegas sports bettor and businessman Billy Walters as an example of sports betting being skill." Lynch also "explained how certain sports bettors move betting lines, a skillful technique analogous to bluffing in poker" (ESPN.com, 7/21).
