As it stands nowadays, 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 game playing has seen harsher rules. With the Unlawful Web Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it was not explicitly banned but rather it was online financial transactions which were outlawed. This meant that online financial transactions from gambling providers were now illegal which led to many offshore gambling operators excluding US customers from their services.
Existing in this legal grey area, it is no more a concern of if online gambling will go into the united states market but when and perhaps how. As recently as this month, three states have got legalized online gambling and intend to begin offering bets by the end of this year. Naturally, dominobet gaming firm in Las Vegas referred to as Ultimate Gaming was the first ever to offer online poker but also 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 Games Association has stated that “Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the best expansion of legalized gambling in america. I don’t believe that’s what anyone intended, nonetheless it is what we’re viewing.” This poses many questions and of course concerns for most existing commercial casinos along with American policy makers. Will legal online gambling mean fewer folks in offline casinos? Will this develop a new source of revenue at hawaii and national level? Think about taxes and regulations? An increase in gamblers?
Lots of people including Arnie Wexler, past chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling has got voiced concern that with all the current good this could do to create income and revenue for specific states there could be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media in america as some areas like Zynga have already begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making plans to expand into online gambling to complement their real casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general supervisor of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any business, you’re always searching for what is another distribution channel.”