Notes from iGaming North America
Last week I attended iGaming North America and it was quite eye opening and exciting.
Here are some brief notes on what I observed.
The window for Federal regulation of online poker has likely closed for now. This was the general consensus from the conference. This certainly does not mean to drop all efforts, as contacting your US Congress person to get them to support online poker is always going to be a good idea. To find out more about contacting legislators about online poker regulation head on over to the Poker Player Alliance. The PPA makes it very easy for you to contact your representation.
Why has the window closed?
1. The opportunity for Federal Regulation seemingly has passed as we are now in an election year and the lame duck session has past (111th Congress 2010).
2. The States do not want Federal Regulation. See “States want Internet gaming left to them” published during the conference.
3. State have to focus internally, as you can imagine, with current gaming regulations and bodies, including B&M casinos and Tribal authorities.
Now the race for States is on to lead the way in online poker (and gaming) regulation. See: “Nevada confident to win race to be first State to offer online poker.”
There are a good dozen or so States leading the way and that list (in no real order but some piority) includes:
Nevada, Iowa, New Jersey, California, Mississippi, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii, New York.
NOTE: this list consider states discussing lottery ticket sales online as well.
There is still plenty of talk of online poker regulation on the Federal Level. Any talk is good talk, the more in the public the subject is the better.
See this video: Fmr. Sen. Al D’Amato on Legalizing Online Poker on Fox Business last Friday, March 9th.
If I get a chance I’ll try to put up some more notes. Feel free to email me or follow me on twitter: Follow joetall
Thanks for reading,
Joe
