As it stands nowadays, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling of their borders while significant restrictions and limits are placed on interstate and this activity. Recently, online video gaming has seen harsher restrictions. With the Unlawful Net Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it had been not explicitly banned but rather it had been online financial transactions which were outlawed. This meant that all online financial transactions from gambling service providers were now illegal which resulted in various offshore gambling operators excluding US buyers from their services.
Existing in this legal grey area, it is no more a query of if online gambling will get into the united states market but when and perhaps how. As recently as this month, three states 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 to offer online poker but for now restricting it to just players in Nevada. New Jersey 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 Games Association has mentioned that “Unless there exists 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, but it is what we’re discovering.” This poses lots of questions and of course concerns for most existing commercial casinos as well as American policy makers. Will lawful online gambling mean fewer persons in offline casinos? Will this develop a new way to obtain revenue at the state and national level? What about taxes and regulations? A rise in gamblers?
Many people including Arnie Wexler, ex – chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling offers voiced concern that with the good this could do to generate income and revenue for specific states there could be problems with a rise in compulsive gambling. . There’s 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 hotel casinos are already making plans to expand into online gambling to complement their real casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general manager of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any business, you’re always looking for what is another distribution channel.”