As it stands today, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling within their borders while significant rules and limits are placed on interstate which activity. Recently, online games 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 dealings from gambling providers were now illegal which led to many offshore gambling operators excluding US customers from their services.
Existing in this lawful grey area, it is no more a question of if online gambling will get into the US market but when and perhaps how. As just lately as this month, three states contain legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the finish of this year. Naturally, a gaming company in Las Vegas referred to as Ultimate Gaming was the first to offer online poker but also for now restricting it to sole 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 Video games Association has explained that “Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the usa. I don’t think that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re experiencing.” This poses a lot of questions not to mention concerns for most existing commercial casinos as well as American policy makers. Will legitimate online gambling mean fewer men and women in offline 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 the good this could do to create income and revenue for individual states there could be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There is particular concern regarding social media marketing in the US as some areas like Zynga have previously begun taking real-money bets.
pgslot Taking in mind all the questions and concerns, many hotel casinos are already making ideas to expand 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 the next distribution channel.”
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