GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 27 - February 2014

Online gaming in the USA I t’s been a long time since anybody wanted to sing about the online gaming industry in the U.S. For more than seven years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Congress did everything within their power to stop Americans from playing on offshore online casinos and prevent American states from licensing and regulating online gaming. But at the tail end of 2011, the DOJ – after shutting down PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker in the U.S. earlier in the year – changed its mind and said states could regulate intrastate online gaming – that’s gambling contained within the borders of one state. Three states (New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada) adopted legisla- tion in 2012 and early 2013 allowing the licensing and regulating of online gaming within their respective states. And by the end of 2013, there were online casinos operational in New Jersey and Delaware and online poker rooms operational in all three states. In this special “Online gaming in the USA” section, GPWA Editor- in-chief Vin Narayanan looks at the early returns on online gaming in the U.S. and how it may evolve over the next few years. GPWA Times Associate Editor Dan Podheiser recounts his attempts to play in New Jersey’s new online casinos. And Poker Affiliate Listings’ Jeremy Enke looks at the present and future of the online poker market in the U.S. d a stampede tomorrow? 21