As it stands today, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling of their borders while significant restrictions and limits are placed on interstate which activity. Recently, online video games 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 that were outlawed. This meant that all online financial dealings from gambling providers were now illegal which led to several offshore gambling operators excluding US customers from their services.
Existing in this legal grey area, it is no longer a problem of if online gambling will enter the US market but when as well as perhaps how. As recently as bro138 , three claims own legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the end of this year. Naturally, a gaming firm in Las Vegas known as Ultimate Gaming was the first to offer online poker but for now restricting it to sole players in Nevada. NJ and Delaware have also legalized online gambling and so far ten other states are considering legalizing it in some form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Games Association has explained that “Unless there is a federal bill passed, we will have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in america. I don’t think that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re seeing.” This poses lots of questions and of course concerns for many existing commercial casinos as well as American policy makers. Will lawful online gambling mean fewer folks in offline casinos? Will this create a new way to obtain revenue at hawaii and national level? Think about taxes and regulations? A rise in gamblers?
Lots of people including Arnie Wexler, ex – chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling features voiced concern that with the good this could do to generate income and revenue for specific states there may be problems with a rise in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media in america as some spots like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind all the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making programs to extend into online gambling to complement their actual casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general manager of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any other business, you’re always looking for what is another distribution channel.”