As it stands nowadays, individual states are free to prohibit or practice gambling of their borders while significant rules and limits are placed on interstate which activity. Recently, online video games has seen harsher restrictions. With the Unlawful Web Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it had been 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 legal grey area, it is no more a problem of if online gambling will enter the united states market but when and perhaps how. As recently as this month, three states include legalized online gambling and intend to begin offering bets by the finish of the year. Naturally, a gaming company in Las Vegas referred to as Ultimate Gaming was the first to offer online poker but for now restricting it to just players in Nevada. New Jersey and Delaware also have legalized online gambling and so far ten other states are considering legalizing it in some form or another.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gambling Association has explained that “Unless there exists 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, but it is what we’re witnessing.” This poses a lot of questions and of course concerns for most existing commercial casinos and American policy makers. Will legal online gambling mean fewer individuals 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?
Lots of people including Arnie Wexler, ex – chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling provides voiced concern that with the good this could do to generate income and revenue for particular states there could be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media marketing in the US as some places like Zynga have already begun taking real-money bets.
Taking in mind the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making strategies to extend into online gambling to check their actual physical casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general supervisor of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any other business, you’re always searching for what is another distribution channel.”g
Why I Hate ONLINE GAMBLING
