As it stands today, individual states are absolve to prohibit or practice gambling within their borders while significant restrictions and limits are placed on interstate and this activity. Recently, online game playing has seen harsher rules. With gbo303 Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it had been not explicitly banned but instead it was online financial transactions that were outlawed. This meant that all online financial transactions from gambling service providers were now illegal which led to numerous offshore gambling operators excluding US consumers from their services.
Existing in this lawful grey area, it is no longer a problem of if online gambling will key in the US market but when and perhaps how. As lately as this month, three states possess legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the finish of this year. Naturally, a gaming company in Las Vegas known as Ultimate Gaming was the first ever to offer online poker but also for now restricting it to sole players in Nevada. New Jersey and Delaware also have legalized online gambling therefore far ten other states are considering legalizing it in some form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Game playing Association has explained that “Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the usa. I don’t believe that’s what anyone intended, nonetheless it is what we’re discovering.” This poses many questions and of course concerns for many existing commercial casinos along with American policy makers. Will lawful online gambling mean fewer individuals in offline casinos? Will this develop a new source of revenue at hawaii and national level? What about taxes and regulations? An increase in gamblers?
Lots of people including Arnie Wexler, former chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling has voiced concern that with the good this could do to create income and revenue for personal states there may be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There is particular concern regarding social media in the US as some locations like Zynga have already begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making strategies to expand into online gambling to complement their actual physical casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general office manager of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any business, you’re always looking for what is the next distribution channel.”