As it stands right now, individual states are absolve to prohibit or practice gambling within their borders while significant restrictions and limits are placed on interstate which activity. In recent years, online game playing has seen harsher restrictions. With football brasil Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it had been not explicitly banned but rather it was online financial transactions which were outlawed. This meant that all online financial transactions from gambling service providers were now illegal which led to countless offshore gambling operators excluding US clients from their services.
Existing in this legal grey area, it is no longer a dilemma of if online gambling will enter in the US market but when and perhaps how. As lately as this month, three states have legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the end of the year. Naturally, a gaming organization 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. NJ and Delaware have also legalized online gambling therefore far ten other states are considering legalizing it in a few form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Game playing Association has said that “Unless there exists a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the United States. I don’t think that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re experiencing.” This poses a great deal of questions and of course concerns for many existing commercial casinos in addition to American policy makers. Will legal online gambling mean fewer men and women in offline casinos? Will this create a new source of revenue at hawaii and national level? What about taxes and regulations? A rise in gamblers?
Lots of people including Arnie Wexler, past chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling features voiced concern that with all the good this could do to generate income and revenue for individual states there may be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media marketing in the US as some places like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind all the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making strategies to increase into online gambling to complement their actual physical casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general manager of Caesars INTERNET POKER has said “Like any other business, you’re always searching for what is another distribution channel.”