60 Minutes Ignored Legal Advice: 1

The highly publicized 60 Minutes special which aired in late November 2008 is in the news yet again, this time it is for not following the advice of their legal expert. The one hour expose on the online gambling industry focused on saying that online gambling is illegal in the United States, in particular poker at online casinos. Their legal expert for the purposes of this online casino special was Professor I. Nelson Rose from Whittier College. Professor Rose’s advice was to not to proclaim repeatedly that online poker is illegal in the United States. Professor Rose is an expert in the field of internet gambling law in the United States, and that is why the 60 Minutes producers chose him as their legal advisor for the program.

Before the taping of the show, the Professor was asked by the producers about how he interpreted the laws against online casinos in the United States, specifically if he thought that online poker was legal or not. He made his views pretty clear to the show’s producers before the taping and his feelings may not have exactly matched what they wanted to hear. Professor Rose did an interview with Poker News Daily and he told them that there are certain states that have laws against playing poker online on the books. In those states, such as Washington, a player can be punished with a C-class felony punitive measure, which is the equivalent to child molestation and rape. Surely playing poker at an online casino is nowhere close to the horrific act of child molestation and rape, but it is something that there is no tolerance for in certain states.

Professor Rose told the online casino news paper, Poker News Daily that: “I thought I made it clear to them. You can’t say for sure that online poker is illegal. There are too many variables. The show gave the false impression that it’s a crime to play poker [in the United States] when in fact in probably half of the states, you’re not committing any crime at all.”