The Department of Justice years ago took the position that the federal Wire Act of 1961 prohibited all sorts of online gambling even though the law itself seemed to only apply to sports betting.
Overwhelming evidence substantiates the position that the Soviet Union does not now possess an indigenous capability to produce wire bonders or to obtain them from foreign sources in sufficient quantity or quality to render U.S. export controls irrelevant.
Federal prosecutorial efforts against online poker have in recent years focused on the role of payment processors, making it seem to some that the government does not have a high degree of confidence in its position that facilitating for-money online poker violates U.S. law, specifically the wire act.