What Is Really Going On With Online Gambling In The U.S.?
Added: July 18, 2016
What with this being an election season and all that means, one might well be thinking that this will be the year. Finally, the year where some positive action for increased availability of online gambling sites. At least that is what quite a number of proponents of online casino action have been hoping. Alas, not so much. Except for a few not so notable exceptions, the status of legal online gambling action in the United States seems to be on track to mirror what happened over the last few years as in little to no further expansion of legal online casinos.
What is going on here? Why does it seem as if the increased availability of legal online casino action in the U.S. is moving at a ‘snail’s pace’, if not even slower? If you take a step back and look at this situation in a bit more detail you may start to understand all of the factors at play.
Naturally you understand full well that there is a bit of angst on the part of land based casinos about protecting their turf so to speak. By this point in time you may well be sick and tired of hearing the name Sheldon Adelson and his comment back in 2013 about his intention to spend any amount of money to ensure that legal online gambling does not happen. As the Chairman of the behemoth land based casino Las Vegas Sands, Adelson is clearly on the defensive. In other words, there is a strong push by land based casinos against the further expansion of online casino action.
At the same time, there is quite a bit of politics at play at the state lelvel. There are those that are for online casino action, but at the same time are quite concerned about upsetting any of their constituents who may be morally opposed to legal online gambling sites. Even when state legislators can quite clearly identify with the benefits such as additional revenue flowing to the state treasury, many are quite reluctant to upset the proverbial apple cart.
Yet another factor is what is turning into a contest of words. You must have seen the controversy that arose with online Daily Fantasy Sports betting sites. On one side, proponents proclaim that fantasy sports betting is a game of skill while on the opposite side the claim is this is still online gambling.
The end result is exactly what you see at the moment. The political stalemates at both the state and the federal level that is a key factor in the current status of online gambling in the U.S.