What are the odds of legal online casinos in the USA any time soon?
The big question remains - will
USA legalize the online casinos soon and what are the odds of this
happening in the next year or so? If we believe everything we read
on the internet these days, one may say that the odds are pretty
good that USA will soon have legal online casinos. A lot of talk
circles around the inability of the states to improve on their
budgets or at least balance them and naturally they are expected to
look for different avenues for tax income. Many have also suggested
that quite a few states are already looking towards online casino
gambling as a way of filling the large voids in their coffers. This
was also helped immensely by the recent comments of DOJ that the
Wire Act applies only to sports betting, rather than include online
poker and casino gambling. And with all these positive news,
certainly we may have legal online casinos in the USA very soon,
right?
Well, not quite right. First, states
with legal land-based Native American casinos will definitely meet
strong opposition and lobbying against allowing legal online casinos
in those specific USA states. After all, those gambling halls,
hotels, venues and restaurants may be hurt by the legalization of
online gambling at the state level. An option here is to allow the
tribes already holding a land-based gambling license to expand their
casinos online, as well. A bit murky, considering most Native
American casinos are not overseen by the gambling commissions,
rather by tribal authorities. At the same time, legal USA online
casinos must be regulated. It would be interesting to see how this
plays out, if it even gets close to legal internet gambling at
states with Native American casinos.
The second question mark for
legal U.S. online casinos is the lack of political will. A lot of
congressmen are certainly for legalizing and regulating the online
casinos and poker rooms, but at the same time issues such as these
are always very low on the political agenda. Unless there is heavy
lobbying, which is clearly not the current case with the internet
casinos and the poker rooms are not fairing any better. |