Future Unclear For US Online Poker Legislation
As it became evident earlier this week that online poker would not figure in the Congressional bill on extending payroll tax and unemployment benefit, pundits and analysts were quick to contribute their two bits to what the near future of a federal legislation on online gaming looked like.
One of the first “experts” to state his vision for the future was Chad Beynon, a gaming analyst working for Macquarie Securities. While opining that any debate on a federal framework for legalizing online gaming would probably not happen before 2013, Beynon hedged his bets by pointing out that the possibility of passing a legislation to regulate online poker was still possible. He then revealed an intriguing hand that might explain his lack of enthusiasm for federal legislation – he presented a strong case for Nevada as the best positioned state to benefit from the absence of Congressional action on a federal law on online gaming.
Beynon pointed out that Nevada already had the draft legislation in place and that it might come into effect within a month. He also pointed out that the standards were written in such a way that incremental changes could be incorporated as the process moved forward. In a strong pitch to potential investors he revealed that although no firm dates have been set, 13 companies had already submitted applications for operating licenses. Continuing his strong pitch for the state, he added “Nevada’s Gaming Control Board continues to methodically roll out legalized intrastate gaming and we believe their regulatory board has a great handle on what’s to come.”
Beynon hinted that other states like New Jersey, Iowa and California which were also mulling state level laws on online betting, as well as the federal government itself, might well use the Nevada regulations as a template for additional legalization.
To balance Nevada’s irresistible attractions as an investment destination for major gaming companies looking to break into the US online betting market, Beynon added another imaginative dimension. He pointed at social gaming sites which offer “play for fun” games as a potential area of interest for investors. He quoted some impressive statistics to back his “theory”. Reportedly, the top 3 three gaming sites run by social media – Zynga, Slotomania and Facebook’s Double Down Casino draw more than a million users daily.
While Beynon was busy extolling the virtues of Nevada as the future Mecca of online gaming, other analysts were trying to figure out possible future courses of action for making federal legislation on online poker a reality. Proponents of the law could now try to attach the online poker law to any other piece of legislation like the jobs package or even the intensely debated legislation on cyber security. If all these fail, advocates of a federal legislation on online gaming like Senator Harry Reid (Nevada) could try and push it through as a stand-alone piece during the lame duck period which will follow the November elections.
Whatever be the eventual outcome in the near future, what is heartening for all stake holders of online gaming is that the issue is alive and very much in the spotlight for the moment.
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