The Wire Act has, for the last few years, caused online companies more than a little grief. By gambling online companies have been accused of breaking the Wire Act. The Act became law back in the 1960s when the whole Watergate thing went down. After a question of the legality of selling state lottery tickets online the federal government was forced to clarify what was actually covered by the Wire Act. The verdict came back that the Wire Act applied to sports related betting only and had no sway over the selling of state lottery tickets. And because poker has recently been recognized as a card game of skill and so is not considered a sport in the literal or Wire Act sense. This is great news to poker players and pro poker organizations seeking passage of federal laws regarding online poker. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has been working with legislators for the last few years in an attempt to have federal regulation of the online poker industry. The hope is to legalize online poker in the United States and provide regulations and consumer protection for players. And although the deadline has passed to get federal regulation through the house this year, 2012 is looking a lot more promising. Of course now the Wire Act has been defined as not relating to online poker many folks have raised the issue of the Black Friday affair. On Black Friday three major online gaming sites were accused of breaking the Wire Act through their online and banking activities. But as the sites were also accused of breaking the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act it seems unlikely that charges in the cases will be dropped based on this recent clarification.