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The first independent gambling guide to the best online
casinos!
Online Casinos Action Attract U.S.
Land Casinos
The intense mainstream
press interest in U.S. land casino ambitions toward online casinos
gambling possibilities continued last week Reuters and other wire
service reports examining the delicate online casinos situation. Online
casinos have sometimes been seen as a threat to land based casinos and
other times online casinos have been examined as a gift to the future
profitability of the gambling industry in general. Clearly, land based
casinos have taken a turn and now support online casinos more than ever
before.
Earlier, comments by the AGA and by major U.S. land casino companies
suggested a growing interest in gaining access to the growing universe
of gamblers at online casinos, although companies emphasized that they
are not losing customers to foreign operators that offer wagering at
online casinos.
Speaking about online casinos, Alan Feldman, the spokesman for the
United States land based MGM Mirage said, "It represents an enormous
opportunity." The spokesman for the world’s second largest gaming
operator also added, “And it is an opportunity that is being completely
handed to foreign companies right now."
Standing in the way of this potential online casinos and land based
casinos windfall is a 1961 federal law that forbids interstate telephone
betting that the U.S. Justice Department has said also applies to online
casinos, claiming that it is illegal for U.S. companies to offer online
casinos.
Worldwide revenue from online casinos increased to about $12 billion
last year from $3.1 billion in 2001 and is expected to hit $24.5 billion
by 2010, according to estimates from Christiansen Capital Advisors. U.S.
residents now make up about half of the online casinos market.
The number of Americans who placed bets at online casinos doubled in
2005 to about 4 percent of the adult population, or about 8 million
people, according to a survey by the American Gaming Association, an
industry group that represents U.S. casinos and related companies.
"It is a new place for people to gamble," said Eugene Christiansen, a
consultant with Christiansen Capital. "These are big businesses."
MGM Mirage launched an Internet gambling site branded PlayMGMMirage.com
in 2001, but shut the Web site down in 2003, as it was not allowed to
serve U.S. residents. "There is no business if you keep out everyone
from the United States," Feldman said.
"Some of our companies would think of it as a missed opportunity," AGA
Chief Executive Frank Fahrenkopf said.
"Most of our companies view Internet gambling as possibly another profit
center." Companies such as MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment would
almost certainly start Web sites if Internet gambling were legalized in
the United States, Fahrenkopf said.
Still, he added that U.S. gaming companies did not see Internet gambling
as a threat to their business, as more than half of their revenue now
comes from non-gaming activities that could not be replicated.
"I would not be surprised if there were some compromise passed within
the next two Congresses," said Harold Krent, dean of the Chicago-Kent
College of Law.
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