American Gaming Association Drops Support for Online Gambling in US

Written by:
Ace King
Published on:
May/23/2014
American Gaming Association Drops Support for Online Gambling in US

American Gaming Association chief executive Geoff Freeman said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that his Las Vegas-based organization will no longer support legalization of online gambling in the US, citing a nasty split between casino operators on both sides of the issue.

"One of the things I've learned in this industry is we are extraordinarily competent at shooting at one another," he said. "The snipers in this industry are of the highest quality, and if you let that be the focus, we'll kill each other."

New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have already legalized online gambling while other states like New York and Pennsylvania are considering doing the same but federal legislation drafted by lobbyists of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson threaten to revert this trend.

From the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. casino giants have taken sharply different views in the debate over whether and how to regulate online gambling. Nevada heavyweights including MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corp. favor legalizing online gambling while Las Vegas Sands Corp., which makes most of its money in Macau and Singapore, wants the practice banned.

Casinos favoring legalization say U.S. residents are gambling online anyway so the regulations are needed. "To protect consumers, MGM Resorts supports the federal legalization of Internet poker as well as state-by-state regulatory efforts," said Clark Dumont, MGM's senior vice president of corporate communications.

A representative for Las Vegas Sands didn't immediately reply to requests for comment, but CEO Sheldon Adelson is leading a national lobbying effort against the practice, which he has said hurts society.

"On this issue, we've agreed to disagree," said Jan Jones Blackhurst, Caesars' executive vice president of communications and government relations.

New Jersey’s online gambling sector has gotten off to a tumultuous start following some initial success.  Many credit card issuing banks won’t accept Web gambling transactions, players have been turned off by having to provide their social security numbers online and some casinos are requiring customers have text-enablement each time they log on to verify physical presence in the state.

On Monday, Gambling911.com broke the story that the New Jersey State Attorney General ordered any affiliates partnering with state-licensed online casinos to remove all links to offshore gambling websites whether they accept NJ residents or not.

Online Poker Report obtained copies of said letters received by these affiliates, including one to the popular RakeTheRake.com website ordering that enterprise to remove links to the Merge Gaming Network.  Merge stopped accepting players from New Jersey back in January.

RaketheRake.com, CardsChat.com, PokerSource.com, RakeBrain.com, Pokersites.com, and one unnamed site were advised they would not be permitted to advertise New Jersey licensed Internet gambling sites until all links to offshore gambling businesses were removed.  The move essentially cuts off most avenues for the state-licensed casinos to access Web-based users.

DGE spokeswomen Kerry Langan told OPR, “We believe this may either taint legitimate sites by associating them with the illegal ones, and conversely may lend the appearance that these illegal sites are affiliated with authorized sites.”

Casino CEOs have begun to express frustration over how the process has evolved in states like Nevada and New Jersey.

UltimatePoker CEO Tom Breiting offered his assessment in a nearly four minute video appearing on the G911 website last week.

“We all know that the only one’s living and breathing the business are us, the operators.  Everyone from analysts to reporters were prognosticating.

“Well the revenue projections were too high,” Breitling advises.

Breitling went on to describe the process of joining an online casino in New Jersey as being akin to filling out a mortgage application.

As for the AGA, they haven’t come against online gambling per se, they would just rather sit on the sidelines since its members have failed to act cohesively on the issue.

Freeman submitted written testimony to Congress last year pushing for the legalization of real money online gambling throughout the United States, writing:  "make no mistake: online gaming is here to stay. The government cannot put the Internet back in the bottle."

According to the KeyToCasino.com online casino database there are 178 US friendly casinos on the market as of May 2014.

 

- Ace King, Gambling911.com

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