COMING TO
AMERICA
STATE
IOWA
STATUS:
POPULATION (M)
3M
MARKET SIZE ($)
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
GDP PER CAPITA (000s)
$49.1
SOURCE: EILERS RESEARCH, LLC
$54
“We are expanding egaming in the US based on
an opinion from the Obama administration, but the
Department of Justice opinion can be revised at any
time,” says Porter. “Each White House has its own
agenda with unlimited reach. Today we only have
a DOJ opinion that can be revisited anytime. If the
Romney camp had won the White House, I doubt we
would have seen the current opinion of the Wire Act
as written. I believe the industry is more vulnerable
today to negative federal intervention than it has
been in 20 years.”
Indeed, federal legislation is more delicately
poised than many think, and there are plenty of
anti-gambling supporters waiting in the wings to
get behind a bill scuppering the progress made to
do date. The likes of Las Vegas Sands owner and
Republican donor Sheldon Adelson would love
nothing more than to send European egaming
companies packing.
Operators, however, can take some solace in the
fact that the likelihood of a Democrat administration
trying to ban online gambling is slim and with the
current House and Senate as divided as it is, egaming
may well be the least of their worries. Furthermore
as egaming tax revenues become clear – a recent
report estimated the New Jersey regulated internet
gambling market to be worth around $90m in 10
years’ time – the federal government may not be able
to afford to block such valuable revenue streams.
“Tax revenue is a significant factor, and as we get
deeper into debt, and as the public becomes more
aware of the dire debt and deficit situation facing
the US, the resistance towards egaming as a source
of potential tax revenue will be lessened and there
may be more of an appetite to consider this sort of
legislation,” Walters says.
WHAT
NEXT?
READ ON TO
FIND OUT
44
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