As it stands today, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling within their borders while significant regulations and limits are put on interstate and this activity. In recent years, online gaming has seen harsher restrictions. With the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it was not explicitly banned but instead it had been online financial transactions that were outlawed. This meant that online financial transactions from gambling service providers were now illegal which led to numerous offshore gambling operators excluding US buyers from their services.
Existing in this legitimate grey area, it is no more a dilemma of if online gambling will go into the united states market but when and perhaps how. As lately as this month, three claims include legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the finish of the year. Naturally, a gaming firm in Las Vegas referred to as Ultimate Gaming was the first to offer online poker but for now restricting it to only players in Nevada. m77 casino and Delaware also have legalized online gambling and so far ten other states are considering legalizing it in some form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gambling Association has mentioned that “Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the best expansion of legalized gambling in the usa. I don’t believe that’s what anyone intended, nonetheless it is what we’re witnessing.” This poses a great deal of questions and of course concerns for most existing commercial casinos together with American policy makers. Will legitimate online gambling mean fewer individuals in brick and mortar casinos? Will this create a new source of revenue at the state and national level? What about taxes and regulations? An increase in gamblers?
Many people including Arnie Wexler, past chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling features voiced concern that with all the current good this could do to generate income and revenue for particular states there may be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media in the US as some spots like Zynga have already begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind the questions and concerns, many hotel casinos are already making strategies to increase into online gambling to check their bodily casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general supervisor of Caesars INTERNET POKER has said “Like any business, you’re always looking for what is another distribution channel.”
