As it stands today, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling of their borders while significant restrictions and limits are put on interstate which activity. In recent years, online video gaming has seen harsher regulations. With the Unlawful Web Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it was 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 numerous offshore gambling operators excluding US customers from their services.
Existing in this legal grey area, it is no longer a concern of if online gambling will get into the US market but when and perhaps how. As recently 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 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 a few form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gambling Association has mentioned 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 believe that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re experiencing.” This poses a great deal of questions not to mention concerns for most existing commercial casinos as well as American policy makers. Maxwin gambling mean fewer individuals in brick and mortar casinos? Will this create a new source of revenue at hawaii 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 got voiced concern that with all the current good this could do to generate income and revenue for individual states there could be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media in the US as some spots like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind the questions and concerns, many hotel casinos are already making programs to broaden into online gambling to check their physical casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general supervisor of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any other business, you’re always searching for what is the next distribution channel.”