Like being able to bet on sports games? Well, if you live in a state that allows betting on single games by law, such as Delaware, you may not be able to see any live NCAA events in your area. On Thursday, the NCAA announced that they would no longer allow events to be held in such states. This decision does not apply to states that allow parlay betting, sports pools, lottery tickets, and pull tabs.Officially, though, the NCAA is against all forms of betting, and the don’t allow advertising that promotes gambling at any of their games.
Delaware, Montana, Nevada, …read more

On Monday, the Associated Press and a number of other Florida media outlets banded together to sue the NCAA and Florida State. Recently, FSU received a response about their academic cheating scandal, and the school chose to keep these documents private while responding themselves. However, the press says that this is a blatant violation of Florida’s open government laws.
Everyone wants to know what’s in those documents. The NCAA had previous annonced that they’d strip coach Bobby Bowden of a number of wins, and this documnt is in response to an appeal of that decision. Bowden’s in the running to become …read more

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/world_news/Should_you_be_allowed_to_drink_in_public_ever?OTC-em-st1′;

Should you be allowed to drink in public? Where does public begin? We’re about to find out, it seems.
Kimber VanRy is testing the waters. The 39 New Yorker sat down on his stoop to have a beer (a Sierra Nevada) when he was cited for drinking in public.
In New York, and other cities states, drinking a beer outside – even if it is on your stoop – is unlawful. The New York City law prohibits anyone from drinking an alcoholic beverage, or possessing and intending to drink from an open container …read more

Who didn’t show up for the London Beer Festival? Alistair Darling, though clearly he was on the minds of festivalgoers.
Members of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) protested the UK beer tax outside of the festival in London, England.
The British beer tax is the highest in the EU, ringing up at more than 80p per pint. Taxes for other spirits in Britain are just as high, as part of the recent national budget.

Earlier in the year, we posted about the problems that Vaune and Barbara Dillmann of the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company was having with the message “Try Legal Weed” printed on his bottle caps. Apparently, commingling references to drugs on alcoholic beverages is prohibited – a little something the Dillmanns learned when the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau got involved.
The Dillmanns appealed the ruling and were in the middle of preparations to litigate the matter when they received some good news: they can continue using the slogan on the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company bottle caps.
The Dillmanns’ …read more

Anheuser-Busch refuses to go down easily.
As InBev grows more aggressive with respect to its bid to take over Anheuser-Busch, A-B has started fighting back. This week, A-B filed a lawsuit against InBev in Missouri. A key issue in the suit? InBev’s operations in Cuba. According to the complaint, InBev’s “business in Cuba is substantial, with more than 570 full-time employees, distribution centers located throughout the country, and sales accounting for 44 percent of total beer sales on the island.”
And this matters why?
Th US has regulations that prohibit just such a venture, notably the (and I’m not …read more

Not sure how I missed this, but apparently it’s American Craft Beer Week, another one of those ceremonial weeks sanctioned by Congress (if you’re a law wonk, check out the actual bill as a pdf here).
If you read the recitals to that law, you’d think craft brewers are heroes (I certainly do), which is particularly ironic given that there are others who feel that there is a new movement afoot to stigmatize social drinking (referred to as “Prohibition drip-by-drip).
Anyway, make sure you celebrate with your favorite local craft brew, and lift one for me as well.

There are a lot of obscure and strange laws on the books which relate to how beer and other alcoholic products can be marketed, sold, distributed, and pretty much limiting all aspects of the product which can be limited. The Mount Shasta Brewing Co. found this out the hard way, when the FDA decided that its advertisements violated a rule against the use of drug references in alcohol labeling. Given the promo – “Try Legal Weed” – they might have a point.
Then again, they might not, because Shasta brews in the town of Weed, California. For more info check out …read more

The law has long had a strange relationship with beer here in the US, which is why some of my German brews are still labelled “malt liquor,” but the craft brew movement is slowly influencing how beer is regulated. Maryland recently expanded the definition of beer to include hard cider, various malt beverages which I wouldn’t consider beer, and grain-derived beverages which wouldn’t previously have been considered beers due to their alcohol content. If you’re curious enough to see the bill itself, it’s here. The real impact of this law is on where those beverages may be sold, but it …read more