Chasing the American Dream
Does it still make sense for foreign firms to enter the embryonic online casino and sports betting market of the United States ?
By Alan Campbell
The United States Supreme Court ’ s revocation of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act ( PASPA ) in May 2018 presented online sports betting providers from around the world with a plethora of new opportunities . This reversal cultivated by then-New Jersey Governors Jon Corzine and Chris Christie meant that individual American states and their dependent Indian tribes were free to begin approving and licensing firms for the local provision of online sports wagering entertainment .
The prospects for iGaming companies in the United States subsequently increased even further as persistent confusion over the tenets of the once-feared Federal Wire Act and Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act ( UIGEA ) led to a limited number of states taking the plunge into expanding this program to a diverse range of online casino games including slots , poker and roulette .
Current Character
Licensed online sports betting is today available in 36 American states as well as the District of Columbia , while six jurisdictions encompassing Pennsylvania , Michigan , New Jersey , Connecticut , West Virginia and Delaware allow residents and visitors to remotely wager on an assortment of casino games . This market brought in some $ 2.65 billion in aggregated revenues last year while numerous experts predict that the combined tally could grow to be worth more than $ 7.61 billion by the end of 2028 .
Altering Attitudes
Gregory Gemignani from Las Vegas-headquartered law firm Dickinson Wright asserts that all of this was helped by the preceding proliferation of daily fantasy sports ( DFS ) games from providers such as DraftKings and FanDuel as well as changing social attitudes regarding sports betting .
Also an adjunct gaming law professor at the Boyd Law School at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas , the American iGaming-related legislation and regulation authority declares that a gradual shift in the way online casino games and sports betting were viewed played a major role in making such activities more acceptable to the larger body politic .
“ It was a confluence of events that caused the shift in attitudes towards sports betting and iGaming in the United States ,” Gemignani says . “ DFS games , which have common elements with traditional sports wagering , had become widely popular in the run-up to New Jersey ’ s challenge of PASPA while the perception of sports wagering had undergone a dramatic change in the 2010s .
“ Despite being deemed gambling by officials in 12 states , no DFS
“ It was the combination of changing social norms , alterations in legal status and a reluctance to crack down on new forms of sports-related betting that coalesced into the rapid adoption of regulated sports wagering in many states and tribal jurisdictions .”
— Gregory Gemignani , Member and Gaming Practice Group Chair , Dickinson Wright
18 Global Gaming Business AUGUST 2023