Jeff Ifrah

Last updated

Jeff Ifrah is a Buffalo native-attorney [1] specializing in online gaming and sports betting law. He is the founding partner of Ifrah Law. Ifrah and Ifrah Law are ranked in the top bands by Chambers USA in Gaming and Licensing attorneys [2] and litigators categories. [3] His clients have included Genius Sports, Kambi, Sport Radar, Gaming1, Boom Fantasy, White Hat Gaming, Barstool Sports, The Action Network, Unikrn, Bet365, Playtech, WorldPay, and the Stars Group. [4]

Contents

Ifrah is the founder of the iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA), a non-profit association that advocates for online interactive entertainment business in the U.S. Ifrah, alongside other attorneys from Ifrah Law, submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the sports betting case Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association , which was decided in favor of iDEA’s argument urging the rights of states to direct their own economies. [5]

Ifrah served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law on the topic of Advanced Regulation of Sports Betting, where he taught a certificate program dedicated to the regulatory and legal aspects of sports wagering law and integrity. [6] He is also a member of the UNLV Gaming Law Journal Advisory Board, a member of the Online Gaming Lawyer Editorial Board, a member of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section, and a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law. [7]

Ifrah co-authored the book Federal Sentencing for Business Crimes, a comprehensive treatise on federal sentencing in the context of business and white-collar crimes. [8]

Ifrah is frequently cited by major news organizations on issues in the sports betting industry, white-collar crime, and the broader gaming industry, such as CNN, [9] The Washington Post, [10] Wall Street Journal, [11] The New York Times, [12] ESPN, [13] and more.

Early life

Ifrah was born to Moroccan immigrants who settled in Buffalo, New York, and is the only son out of six children. [14]

Education

His early education began in a day school in Buffalo before he later enrolled in a mesivta in Toronto during his adolescence. Before he could receive his high school diploma, Ifrah enrolled at Yeshiva University, having gained early admission. At Yeshiva University, Ifrah earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in medieval Jewish history, with a specialization in Spain. During the summer, Ifrah attended Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School, where he met his wife, Barbara. [14]

Military

After hearing a speech from the Jewish Welfare Board about the need for military chaplains, Ifrah decided to work for the military as a lawyer, during a period of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iraq following the Gulf War. Ifrah was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and was stationed at Fort Monmouth. [14]

Ifrah completed basic training and enrolled in the military’s Judge Advocate General School at the University of Virginia. [14] [15] After completing his training at the JAG School, Ifrah worked as Trial Counsel to the communications and electronics military intelligence unit based in Fort Monmouth, which allowed him the opportunity to gain trial experience in cases alleging fraud against the government. [14] After two years of work at Fort Monmouth, he was promoted to captain and made Chief of the Military Law Branch. [15]

Career

In 1997, Ifrah accepted a position with Paul Hastings, a national white-collar law group. In one such case with the firm in 1998, involving an Austrian mobile sports betting operator advertising in New Jersey, Ifrah was exposed to online sports betting. This case led to Ifrah’s representing payment processors in online gaming as well as other businesses in online sports betting and online poker. [16]

In 2006, Ifrah became a partner and shareholder in the litigation department of another global firm, Greenberg Traurig. [7]

In 2009, Ifrah launched his own firm, Ifrah Law, which focuses on matters of online gaming, sports betting, litigation, advertising and marketing, and data privacy and cybersecurity. [17] In so doing, Ifrah and the firm began to collaborate with businesses in online sports betting and online poker as the businesses lobbied for changes in regulations that would allow them to conduct business in particular states. [16]

Ifrah gained international notoriety in 2012 for his role in brokering a settlement between PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and the United States Department of Justice, following the 2011 “Black Friday” Poker Scandal. [18]

Ifrah and his firm scored another notable legal victory, this time against the U.S. Department of Justice, in a case involving the search, seizure, and forensic imaging of a flyer’s laptop using specialized software at the Los Angeles International Airport by a Department of Security Agent with notable implications for citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights. [19] On the ruling, Ifrah stated that it essentially said “a laptop is not a purse. It is one thing to look through items somebody carries in a handbag, but modern electronic gadgets contain vast amounts of personal data, metadata, and even deleted data that clearly require a well founded reason and a warrant to be searched by government officers.” [20]

Efforts for Gaming Legalization

Ifrah founded the iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA), a non-profit association seeking to grow jobs and expand the online interactive entertainment business in the United States through advocacy and education. [21]

In March 2017, Ifrah hosted a mock sports-betting trial at iGaming North America at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, which was attended by two NBA attorneys at the direction of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who is known for his “realist” stance toward sports betting. [22]

In 2019, alongside the NBA and other sports betting industry participants, Ifrah testified in a public hearing on legal sports betting at the New York State Capitol building in Albany, New York. [23]

Ifrah joined in New Hampshire Lottery et al. v. Rosen (2021) as an intervenor, in a case involving the DOJ’s reinterpretation of the Wire Act following the overturning of PASPA in Murphy v. NCAA . [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Hill (bookmaker)</span> Bookmakers in the United Kingdom

William Hill is a British gambling company founded in 1934. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London. The company was previously listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Caesars Entertainment in April 2021. In July 2022, William Hill was subsequently acquired by 888 Holdings for £2.2 billion.

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment was an online gambling company, formed by the March 2011 merger of PartyGaming plc and Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG. Formerly the world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, it was best known for its online poker room PartyPoker, World Poker Tour and its sports betting brand Bwin.

Online gambling is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for the Liechtenstein International Lottery in October 1994. Today, the market is worth around $40 billion globally each year, according to various estimates.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a global white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm employs approximately 800 attorneys throughout 33 offices around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">888 Holdings</span> British online gambling company

888 Holdings plc, formerly Virtual Holdings Limited, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It owns brands such as 888casino, 888poker, 888sport, Mr Green, and William Hill. Business operations are led from its headquarters in Gibraltar, alongside satellite offices in Bucharest, Ceuta, Leeds, London, Malta, Sofia, and Tel Aviv. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gambling in the United States</span>

In the United States, gambling is subject to a variety of legal restrictions. In 2008, gambling activities generated gross revenues of $92.27 billion in the United States.

Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group in a deal where Amaya acquired all of Rational's assets, including PokerStars. A statement by Amaya said the takeover would not affect the activities of Full Tilt Poker. The deal was closed on August 1, 2014.

Playtech plc is a gambling software development company founded in 1999. The company provides software for online casinos, online poker rooms, online bingo games, online sports betting, scratch games, mobile gaming, live dealer games and fixed-odds arcade games online. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

bwin Austrian online betting brand

bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, formerly known as Betandwin, is an Austrian online betting brand acquired by Entain PLC. The group operated under international and regional licences in countries like Gibraltar, the Amerindian reserve of Kahnawake (Canada), and Belize; and Germany, Italy, Mexico, Croatia, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom in Europe. Bwin offered sports betting, poker, casino games, and soft and skill games, with most revenue coming from poker and sports betting. Bwin had over 20 million registered customers in more than 25 core markets. Competence centres were located in Vienna, Stockholm, and Gibraltar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006</span> United States law

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA prohibits gambling businesses from "knowingly accepting payments in connection with the participation of another person in a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any federal or state law." The act specifically excludes fantasy sports that meet certain requirements, skill games, and legal intrastate and intertribal gaming. The law does not expressly mention state lotteries, nor does it clarify whether interstate wagering on horse racing is legal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poker Players Alliance</span> American nonprofit Interest group

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is an American nonprofit Interest group formed to emphasize the rights of poker players, and to protect the players' liberties." The PPA formed to serve as an advocacy group to Washington to establish rights and protections for U.S. poker players. Within the first year of its existence, the PPA garnered over 600,000 members. In April 2008, the PPA claimed to have signed up its one millionth member. Membership growth has been due in part to promotional activities by online poker cardrooms like Party Poker.

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) Action Against Online Poker Players was a legal action taken by the Department of Justice in an effort to crack down on online poker. The action occurred around June 8, 2009, when the government ordered four banks to freeze over 34 million dollars in payments owed to about 27,000 poker players. According to the Poker Players Alliance, a grass-roots organization for poker players, federal prosecutors ordered Citibank, Wells Fargo and Goldwater Bank and Alliance Bank of Arizona to freeze the accounts of Allied Systems and Account Services. Allied Systems and Account Services are two of the account-management companies that Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and PokerStars use for the disbursement of funds.

Town of Mt. Pleasant v. Chimento was a South Carolina case that ruled that while poker was a game of skill, the Dominant Factor Test is not demonstrably a legal standard in South Carolina and thus poker is still subject to the laws related to gambling. The case was later appealed to a higher South Carolina district court where the Judge overturned the trial court's convictions, stating that Dominant Factor Test was the appropriate legal standard and therefore participating in a private home poker game is not illegal, nor is it gambling. The Judge further declared sections of the 207-year-old statute unconstitutionally vague and therefore void. In 2012, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the statute and reinstated the convictions of the defendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey L. Kessler</span> American lawyer (born 1954)

Jeffrey L. Kessler is a partner at the international law firm Winston & Strawn, where he also serves as Co-Executive Chairman and co-chair of the firm's antitrust/competition practice and is a member of the firm's executive committee. Until May 2012, he was the global litigation chair at the international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, where he was also the co-chair of the sports litigation practice group and served on the firm's executive and leadership committees. His major clients include the Panasonic Corporation, National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), William Morris Endeavor, Activision Blizzard, Avanci, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), United States Women's National Team (USWNT) soccer players, NTN Corporation, Relevant Sports, and Actors' Equity Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gambling in New Jersey</span>

Gambling in New Jersey includes casino gambling in Atlantic City, the New Jersey Lottery, horse racing, off-track betting, charity gambling, amusement games, and social gambling. New Jersey's gambling laws are among the least restrictive in the United States. In 2013, the state began to allow in-state online gambling. Five years later, the state won a lawsuit that dismantled Nevada's monopoly on legal sports betting.

<i>United States v. Scheinberg</i> U.S. federal criminal case against the founders of 3 online poker companies

United States v. Scheinberg, No. 1:10-cr-00336 (2011), is a United States federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus, and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and engaged in bank fraud and money laundering to process transfers to and from their customers. A companion civil case, United States v. PokerStars, et al., 11 Civ. 2564 (2011), included Full Tilt and Cereus as defendants and seeks the recovery of forfeiture equalling approximately $3 billion in assets belonging to the companies. After the indictment was unsealed on April 15, 2011, a date quickly dubbed Black Friday by the online poker community, PokerStars and Full Tilt stopped offering real money play to their United States customers. Three years after the start of the poker boom in 2003, the U.S. Congress passed UIGEA to extend existing gambling laws into cyberspace. The law made processing payments for illegal online gambling a crime; however, the defendant companies remained in the U.S. market in the belief that the law did not cover poker. A former payment processor for the companies turned state's evidence after initially being charged with violating UIGEA himself. On September 20, the civil suit was amended claiming individual fraud by Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafael Furst.

Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry, PC, known as Chamberlain Hrdlicka, is a multi-practice, tax-focused American law firm founded in Houston, Texas with offices in Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Antonio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Stars Group</span> Canadian gaming and online gambling company

The Stars Group Inc. was a Canadian gaming and online gambling company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its shares were traded on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange. It primarily operated poker, casino, and sports betting products under the PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, BetStars, and Fox Bet brands.

Calvin Edward Ayre is a Canadian-Antiguan entrepreneur based in Antigua and Barbuda. He is the founder of the Ayre Group and Bodog entertainment brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clyde Vanel</span> American politician (born 1974)

Clyde Vanel is an intellectual property attorney and entrepreneur serving as the assembly member for the 33rd district of the New York State Assembly. A Democrat, he is the chair of the Committee on Oversight, Analysis & Investigation and Chair of the Subcommittee on Internet & New Technologies. The district includes Cambria Heights, St. Albans, Hollis, Queens Village, Bellerose and parts of Floral Park in Queens.

References

  1. ↑ Connelly, Patrick (2020-07-14). "Meet lawyer Jeff Ifrah, the Buffalo native helping the gambling industry form its future" (PDF). ideagrowth.org. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  2. ↑ "Chambers USA 2023 ranks Ifrah law and firm partners among the top bands for gaming & licensing and white-collar crime and government investigations". law.com. 2023-07-01. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  3. ↑ "Jeff Ifrah Makes The Short List For eGaming Review Award North America". Chambers and Partners. 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  4. ↑ "Attorney Jeff Ifrah Bet Big on his Passion Around Online Gaming and Won — an Exclusive Interview | Sports Litigation Alert" . Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  5. ↑ "Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, BRIEF FOR EUROPEAN SPORTS SECURITY ASSOCIATION, THE IDEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, AND THE REMOTE GAMBLING ASSOCIATION AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS" (PDF). SCOTUS Blog.
  6. ↑ "Jeff Ifrah". University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.
  7. 1 2 "A Jeff Ifrah". Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  8. ↑ "Ifrah Law". natlawreview.com. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  9. ↑ O'Toole, James. "Ex-Goldman director Rajat Gupta set for insider trading trial". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  10. ↑ "One byproduct of esports betting? A crackdown on cheating". Washington Post. 2020-06-10. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  11. ↑ Berzon, Alexandra (2013-02-26). "Internet Gambling Scores Its Biggest Win". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  12. ↑ "DraftKings and FanDuel Call Off Merger". The New York Times. The Associated Press.
  13. ↑ "Inside the NFL's gambling policy, and why violations are increasing". ESPN.com. 2023-06-05. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Bensoussan, Barbara (April 14, 2015). "The Accidental Lawyer". Mishpacha.
  15. 1 2 "A. Jeff Ifrah | Founding Member | Ifrah Law PLLC". IFRAH Law. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  16. 1 2 "Meet lawyer Jeff Irah, the Buffalo native helping the gaming industry for its future". Buffalo Business First. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  17. ↑ "About Ifrah Law | Ifrah Law PLLC". IFRAH Law. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  18. ↑ "PokerStars settles with feds, acquires FTP". ESPN.com. 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  19. ↑ "Jeff Ifrah – Ifrah Law Wins Case Against Department of Justice | Press Release | Chambers and Partners". chambers.com. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  20. ↑ "Jeff Ifrah's Law Team Defends Fourth Amendment Rights of Plane Passenger". Yahoo Finance. 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  21. ↑ Zavian, Ellen M. (2020-04-10). "Attorney Jeff Ifrah Bet Big on his Passion Around Online Gaming and Won — an Exclusive Interview". Sports Litigation Alert. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  22. ↑ "Adam Silver's bold stance on gambling". ESPN.com. 2017-11-30. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  23. ↑ Ramsey, Eric. "Comprehensive Sports Betting Hearing Wraps Up In New York". Legal Sports Report.
  24. ↑ Allen, Brad (2019-02-25). "iDEA files suit against DOJ". EGR North America. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.