Author: Ryan D. Jaeger
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The whiff of complete hypocrisy is easily scented by supporters of a legalised and regulated online gambling industry in the United States, after the self same American business sector that contributed to the 2006 online gambling ban is now calling for the government to legalise certain areas of the lucrative industry.
That sector, of course, comprises many of America's largest U.S. land casinos. Leading up to October 2006, many of these casino giants were up in arms about losing hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling revenues to offshore online gambling sites that were attracting U.S. players by the thousands.
However, their solution to the problem of online gambling was a simple and ultimately effective one - to have their lobbying groups in Washington influence the powers that be in Congress into passing legislation, and law, to prevent Americans from gambling online, forcing players back to land gambling facilities.
The result of this strategy, coupled with the Republican administration's already conservative stance towards online gambling, resulted in the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006, which made it illegal for U.S. banks to process online gambling-related payments.
The passing and signing into law of UIGEA, in conjunction with the U.S. Justice Department's new 'witch hunt' directive concerning the world's largest online gambling firms and their key executives, made many of these firms pull out of the American market overnight, and stop accepting U.S. players.
Fast forward four years and now many of the same U.S. land casino giants that once 'conspired' to prevent legalised online gambling in America, are calling for the legalisation of online poker. The reason for this hypocritical about face is of course greed, together with the old saying 'if you can't beat em, join em.'
Where once U.S. land casinos saw online gambling as a threat to their revenue streams, the likes of MGM Resorts, Harrah's Entertainment and Wynn Resorts now see online gambling as another potentially lucrative arm of their business, with many of them poised to launch their own online poker sites.
In fact, right now a trade group representing the major U.S. land casinos is working on a proposal to ask Congress to legalise online poker. It has not been lost on U.S. casino executives that leading offshore online poker room, Pokerstars, generates in excess of $1 billion in revenues per year, and they too want their piece of the pie.
Posted by Ryan D. Jaeger at 09:18 on 9 November 2010
