As it stands right now, individual states are absolve to prohibit or practice gambling of their borders while significant regulations and limits are placed on interstate which activity. In recent years, online video gaming has seen harsher rules. With the Unlawful Web Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it was not explicitly banned but instead it was online financial transactions that were outlawed. This meant that all online financial transactions from gambling providers were now illegal which resulted in many offshore gambling operators excluding US consumers from their services.
Existing in this legal grey area, it is no longer a problem of if online gambling will go into the US market but when and perhaps how. As lately as Jun88 , three says include legalized online gambling and intend to begin offering bets by the end of the year. Naturally, a gaming organization in Las Vegas referred to as Ultimate Gaming was the first ever to offer online poker but for now restricting it to just players in Nevada. NJ and Delaware have also legalized online gambling and so far ten other states are considering legalizing it in a few form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gambling Association has said that “Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in america. I don’t believe that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re finding.” This poses plenty of questions and of course concerns for many existing commercial casinos in addition to American policy makers. Will legal online gambling mean fewer folks in brick and mortar casinos? Will this develop a new source of revenue at hawaii and national level? Think about taxes and regulations? An increase in gamblers?
Many people including Arnie Wexler, past chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling offers voiced concern that with all the good this could do to generate income and revenue for personal states there may be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media marketing in the US as some areas like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind all the questions and concerns, many hotel casinos are already making ideas to develop into online gambling to check their real casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general office manager of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any business, you’re always searching for what is another distribution channel.”