With banks tightening their belts and consumers tightening their wallets, it's a good time to be Frank Merola. As a bankruptcy attorney specializing in the casino business, Merola – who today joined the restructuring team at investment bank Jefferies & Co. – has been involved in just about every major Chapter 11 case in gaming for the last 15 years.

An American attorney is taking legal action against the western state of Washington claiming that its online wagering ban infringes the US Constitution’s protections of interstate trade. Lawyer and poker aficionado Lee Rousso has filed suit in King County Superior Court in an effort to overturn the State’s ban on Internet gambling, a topic that also has the US mired in international trade disputes. “I think my chances are darn good,” said Rousso.

Betting and gaming law is not the only legal area online providers in the gaming trade must deal with. The current legal disputes mainly concern the questions as to “whether“ and “how“ private providers are to be admitted – in particular in the area of sports betting. However, the present decision by the OLG of Düsseldorf shows that, beyond the scope of these questions, the implementation of IT law, in particular of distance contract law, plays an ever more important role (on obligations in the field of distance contract law for lottery syndicates, see also OLG of Karlsruhe of 27th March 2002, ref: 6 U 200/01, MMR 2002, 618 et seq.)