ONLINE GAMBLING: This Is What Professionals Do
As it stands right now, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling within their borders while significant regulations and limits are put on interstate which activity. In recent years, online video games has seen harsher rules. With the Unlawful Net 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 all online financial dealings from gambling providers were now illegal which led to countless offshore gambling operators excluding US customers from their services.
Existing in this legitimate grey area, it is no longer a question of if online gambling will enter in the US market but when and perhaps how. As recently as this month, three says own legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the end of the year. Naturally, a gaming company in Las Vegas known as Ultimate Gaming was the first ever to offer online poker but for now restricting it to only players in Nevada. New Jersey 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 stated that “Unless there exists a federal bill passed, we will have the best expansion of legalized gambling in the usa. I don’t think that’s what anyone intended, nonetheless it is what we’re seeing.” This poses lots of questions not to mention concerns for most existing commercial casinos along with American policy makers. Will lawful online gambling mean fewer persons in offline casinos? Will this create a new source of revenue at the state and national level? Think about taxes and regulations? A rise 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 generate income and revenue for particular states there could be problems with a rise in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media marketing in america as some locations like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind all the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making ideas to develop into online gambling to complement their real casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general supervisor of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any other business, you’re always looking for what is the next distribution channel.”