Shurtleff + Swallow = Wow!!!

How would a top legal officer in the state of Utah be answering

questions about whether gambling is legal in Utah? More importantly, how would that officer NOT know that it IS illegal?

As the Salt Lake Tribune reports

Running a poker business is unlawful under the Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1970 if the state where it is being played prohibits it. To enforce that law in the Internet age, Congress in 2006 passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which bars acceptance of certain types of payments in connection with any illegal wagering.

Yet the following is part of an email conversation between recently resigned Attorney General John Swallow (at the time assistant AG) and a gambling industry representative.

"The question here is: Is there a Utah law that prohibits the processing of poker transactions for persons in other states and countries aside from Utah?" [Jeremy] Johnson wrote to Swallow in July after the April meeting.

Swallow, who succeeded Shurtleff in January as attorney general, responded: "Jeremy, I am not aware of any such law in Utah to prohibit what you are doing," adding that he would have a lawyer in the office investigate further.

That's probably enough right there to prove that Swallow was not qualified to work in the Attorney general's office.

While Mark Shurtleff was Attorney General, he and Swallow met with representatives from the gambling industry. Yet, improbably, according to the Tribune:

Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Tuesday he never had discussions about the legality of processing online-poker payments in 2010, when he met with representatives from the online-poker industry...

Does anyone besides me see anything "odd" about the top legal personnel in Utah meeting with members of an industry whose activities are ALL illegal in the state?

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