GPWA Times - Issue 20 - March 2012

Regulated, widespread online gaming in the USA is coming – but not right now By Vin Narayanan First, the good news: Online gaming (on top of already available wagers on horse races) is coming to the United States. The main game suppliers for the brick-and- mortar casinos in the U.S. know this. That’s why Shuffle Master just bought the OnGame poker network for nearly $28.5 million. It’s why IGT spent $115 million to acquire the Entraction poker network and $500 mil- lion to buy Double Down, a social gaming company with an online casino on Facebook where virtual chips are worthless and cannot be cashed out. It’s why Caesars has been offering real-mon- ey online poker in the U.K. through 888/ Dragonfish. It’s why MGM reached a deal with bwin.party to create a real-money online poker site when it was licensed and regulated. And it’s why Native American tribes across the U.S. are exploring their options when it comes to online gaming. The U.S. Department of Justice added to the good juju surrounding online gaming by ex- pressly declaring the Wire Act only applies to sports betting, and that other forms of intra- state online gaming are legal. As of press time, several states are consider- ing online gaming legislation including New Jersey, California, Iowa and Mississippi. But despite all of this positive momentum for online gaming, I don’t see wide adoption in the U.S. for a few years. And that makes me a pessimist in an optimist’s world. EYES ON U.S. REGULATIONS