As it stands today, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling of their borders while significant regulations and limits are placed on interstate which activity. Recently, online video gaming has seen harsher restrictions. With the Unlawful World wide web Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it was not explicitly banned but rather it was online financial transactions that were outlawed. This meant that all online financial transactions from gambling providers were now illegal which led to several offshore gambling operators excluding US buyers from their services.
Existing in this legitimate grey area, it is no longer a dilemma of if online gambling will get into the US market but when as well as perhaps how. As recently as this month, three says have legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the end of this 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 just players in Nevada. slot online and Delaware also have legalized online gambling therefore far ten other states are thinking about legalizing it in a few form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Video games Association has said that “Unless you will find a federal bill passed, we will 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 viewing.” This poses a lot of questions not to mention concerns for many existing commercial casinos together with American policy makers. Will legal online gambling mean fewer folks in brick and mortar casinos? Will this create a new way to obtain revenue at the state and national level? Think about taxes and regulations? A rise in gamblers?
Many people including Arnie Wexler, former chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling offers voiced concern that with all the current good this could do to create income and revenue for individual states there could be problems with a rise in compulsive gambling. There is particular concern regarding social media in the US as some places like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind the questions and concerns, many hotel casinos are already making programs to grow into online gambling to check their bodily 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.”