Online Casino Gambling

A press release was given on May 20^th, 2011 from Atlantic City, New Jersey regarding the details of the 15^th Annual East Coast Gaming Congress. This event was held on May 23^rd and May 24^th at the Atlantic City Convention Center. The Congress is produced by the Spectrum Gaming Group, a research firm, SOSH Architects and Cooper Levenson Attorneys. The focal point of the conference was the implementation of online gambling in the United States.

The Inevitability of Online Gambling in the U.S.

Although several online poker rooms were seized by U.S. authorities, the majority of Americans believe that online gaming is inevitable. The primary issue in question is whether online gaming will be regulated at the federal or state level. Many experts opine that the regulation will involve both bodies.

Internet Gambling: The Game Changer Discussion

Sponsored by the Global Gaming Business and the Senior Associate of Market Research at the Spectrum Gaming Group, the East Coast Gaming Congress included a discussion entitled, “Internet Gambling: The Game Changer.” Four nationally-recognized experts on the subject addressed a variety of questions related to the popular activity.

The Speakers included; Melanie Brenner, President of the U.S. Online Gaming Association; Honorable John Burzichelli, New Jersey State Assembly; Richard “Skip” Bronson, Chairman of U.S. Digital Gaming and Jan Jones, Senior Vice President of Communications/Government Relations of Caesars Entertainment. The selected speakers offered well-rounded expertise in gaming and government.

The East Coast Gaming Congress

The Congress has always been a popular even for the online gambling industry with over 600 gaming operators, regulators, attorneys, architects, public officials, analysts, investors, equipment manufacturers and other related professionals in attendance. The event began with a reception at The Pool at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City.

Land-Based Casino Discussions

Although the focal point of the Congress was online gambling, several land-based gambling issues were also discussed. For instance, the economic condition of the land casinos in Atlantic City was an important topic. The entire conference schedule is available at the East Coast Gaming Congress website.

New Jersey was selected as the location for the Congress due to the chance (until late 2010) that the state could be the first jurisdiction to legalize and regulate online gambling. Unfortunately, Governor Christie vetoed the bill on the final day. The Congress was an excellent chance for many citizens and law-makers to learn more about the positive and negative effects of online gambling. This will perhaps allow them to make a more informed decision.

Large U.S. casinos are seeing dollars signs with the potential to legalize Internet gambling but neighborhood casinos are seeing problems. Small, local casinos in Nevada comprise most of the gaming halls in the state of Nevada which has the world’s largest concentration of casinos. There is already enough competition amongst land-based casinos; adding legalized Internet gaming could be disastrous.

Why this is an Issue

Local casinos make their money through convenience of reaching a small, localized market and building strong, lasting relationships with their customers. Adding online properties to the mix will result in the biggest brands acquiring the most customers thus phasing out smaller competitors. It’s a simple matter of economies of scale. Those that offer the largest service will continue to expand, grow and attract more customers.

Supporters of Legalization

The primary supporters of the legalization of gambling include foreign-based gaming websites, celebrities, no-name poker players, a few U.S. casino companies and recently the American Gaming Association (AGA) who is lobbying for tough licensing requirements. A select few in Congress have argued that prohibition is ineffective and U.S.-based players are simply spending their money overseas which is continuing to hurt the American economy.

The Las Vegas Culinary Union supports the legalization of online poker. Additionally, gaming giant Harrah’s Entertainment supports online gaming.  Harrah’s commissioned a study in 2009 that concluded the legalization of online gaming could triple the industry as opposed to hinder it. The study was based on the continued growth of Internet poker rooms; European growth and U.S. retail chains that have boosted sales following the launch of Internet stores.

In the past 10 years, it is proven those businesses that have not adopted the Internet as a medium of growth have died out and those supporters have shown vast growth and expansion. This is an excellent opportunity for older casinos to cater to the younger crowd using technology as its medium.

The Opposition

Few U.S. casinos have someone in Washington lobbying for legalization. 14 California tribes that own and operate major casinos are against the bill stating the tribal members will suffer because of extra competition. Additionally, the nation’s largest poker room, Commerce Casino, is against online wagering. The Nevada Resort Association has not yet taken a position on the matter. They represent large casinos at the state level.

The legalization of online gaming has been a long, heated debate. The mechanisms in place to stop problem gamblers or those underage have been minimal. On the other hand, through prohibition the U.S. is losing out money that is being pumped into foreign markets. The country is at crossroad and a firm decision must be made.

Sega Games isn’t just about hedgehogs anymore; the company is branching out to the world of online casinos. They recently announced that they would are launching their own brand of online casino and poker room.

What is Sega Games?

Sega Games makes video games for several consoles like the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3. Sega Games has produced over 900 video games in total, but the company may be most famous for their Sonic the Hedgehog games. Sonic the Hedgehog has been played on several gaming consoles and even had his own cartoon series. In recent years, Sega Games took a back burner to larger companies like Nintendo but has recently announced that they are branching out in to the casino world.

Sega Games Launches an Online Casino

It may seem like a big leap to go from video games to internet gambling, but it may not be for a company like Sega Games. Sega has launched two new websites, SegaCasino.com and SegaPoker.com. Both websites will host Sega branded games. Both sites will offer players the chance to win actual money.

SegaCasino.com

SegaCasino.com will feature both popular poker games as well as virtual slot machines. Currently, SegaCasino.com offers Blackjack, Roulette, and a few other poker games with plans to expand in the upcoming year. SegaCasino.com also hosts several virtual slot machines that are based around the Sega brand name. Players have the chance to win several bonuses that are exclusive to the Sega Company.

SegaPoker.com

SegaPoker.com is a poker room hosted separately from SegaCasino.com. The poker room offers players a chance to compete against each other and win money by playing Sega style poker games. The poker room is live action and can host as many as 30,000 players at a time. This will make the stakes high and the action live.

The Future of Sega Casinos

Sega hopes to cash in on the billions of dollars spent on online gaming in Europe each year. They have several plans to expand both SegaCasino.com and SegaPoker.com through the duration of 2010. At the launch of both websites, Sega will be hosting tournaments in their poker room and special incentives for the first players to join in on the action at SegaCasino.com

According to a report that was released this week by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a measure to decriminalize most forms of internet gambling would raise nearly $42 billion for the U.S. over the next decade. The report, from Washington Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott, is based on the provision of a federal license for operators that would allow them to offer online wagering throughout the United States.

A logical way to raise needed revenue

“I suspect that many of my colleagues will take more interest in this issue once they see $41 billion available that they can match up with any number of worthy programs,” McDermott said in a press release associated with the report. “I would suspect it’s only a matter of time before Congress appropriately moves to regulate the industry in order to protect consumers and reverse the flow of billions of dollars currently lost offshore as Americans gamble billions online despite attempts to prohibit the activity,” he added.

The report has also gained the attention of many in the online gaming industry. “This analysis further reinforces the fact that a regulated environment will generate billions in new revenue to offset the costs of health care reform or other vital government programs,” said Michael Waxman, spokesman for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “With the completed analysis, and support for Internet gambling regulation growing daily, it’s only a matter of time before Congress acts and begins allocating the billions in new revenue sitting on the table to one program or another. This is a very significant development in support of the push to regulate the industry. We would expect that there will be more conversation and more interest in internet gambling regulations.”

The industry is hoping that the report will be a wake up call for the members of congress that haven’t been on board with the initiative. “We believe this tax revenue analysis will encourage immediate discussions and consideration of pending legislation to regulate Internet gambling,” said Waxman.  “With everyone acknowledging that attempts to prohibit the activity have failed, this provides even more incentive for Congress to act.”

McDermott, Frank leading reform efforts

This past spring, McDermott introduced bill HR 2268. The Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act would impose a fee of 2% of deposits on licensed internet gambling operators. McDermott is joined in the fight by Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank. The chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services has announced his desire to hold a hearing and markup in the coming months on his legislation, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2267).

Chairman Frank’s bill would establish a framework to allow licensed gambling operators to accept bets from individuals in the U.S.  It includes several consumer protections including safeguards against money laundering and identity theft. Additional provisions in the bill support the rights of each state to determine whether to allow web gambling activity for people within the state. 

The regulation of online gambling has been one of the most controversial topics of recent times.  Since the inception of the industry in the late 1990s, jurisdictions, lawmakers, organizations and individuals all over the world have debated whether it should be completely legal and regulated or banned entirely.  The United States is arguably the biggest center of controversy due to the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) enacted by President Bush and a republican-led U.S. Congress.  Although the UIGEA does not specifically forbid American players from gambling online, it does speak highly of the disdain many U.S. politicians have for the industry.  Ironically, even with this legislation in place, research shows that well over 50% of online gamblers worldwide reside in the United States.

UIGEA Reception

The initial reaction to the UIGEA can be compared to that of Prohibition back in the in the early 1920s.  It was similar in a sense that several publicly regulated offshore online casino operators abandoned the American market in fear of punishment from lawmakers.  However, the drastic market shift that left players with fewer gaming options simply directed them to privately owned firms who were not afraid to accept wagers from U.S. citizens.  For this reason, critics of the bill have frequently remarked that the UIGEA really does nothing to stop internet gambling for the simple fact that players can seemingly always find a loophole that allows them to play somewhere.  Jurisdictions such as Antigua and Barbuda have labeled the UIGEA and other legal actions taken by the United States as discrimination against online casino operators and a breach of international free trade.  Battles have already been won against the U.S. and several more countries are planning to file complaints because it continuously fails to make efforts to comply with WTO’s (World Trade Organization’s) filing back in 2005.

The United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy  and many other nations have decided to regulate and tax the online gambling industry instead of outlaw it completely.  In fact, several countries, including Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and The Netherlands were warned back in 2006 by the European Commission for allowing local lotteries to offer sports betting, but preventing other operators from doing so.  Charlie McCreevy, EU Financial Services Commissioner, recently hinted that more nations could be added to the growing list of juristidtions currently pending legal ramifications for refusing to open their markets to online gambling.

The Battle Continues

Recent studies conducted by the British government reveal that there are nearly one million avid online gamblers residing in the country.  These players account for an estimated one-third of Europe’s approximate number of 3.5 million people who gamble online.  When combined with nearly 20 million online gamblers in the U.S., you have a rather large group of global supporters that help to power the billion dollar per year industry that has become the internet gambling market.  Players everywhere want a piece of the action so until viable agreements are reached, online gambling regulation will likely be a controversial matter for some time to come.

In the realm of internet gambling, the entities that run the wagering sites are often referred to as online casino operators.  While the owners of these companies have the skill and financial resources to power the business, they generally receive a great deal of input and participation from various internal sources that aid in the operation as well.  This article will go over some of the important roles these parties play in the operation of an online casino.

Casino Manager

The casino manager is a key figure in the online casino operation.  This individual has many responsibilities but their major role is to make sure the casino runs smoothly.  More specific roles include making arrangements with software providers and the gaming jurisdiction, as well as supervising staff to assure that the necessary duties are being performed.  Almost always, it is the online casino manager who ensures that gaming options, promotional offers and payment processing solutions are seamlessly integrated with the software platform.

VIP Reward Reps

There are many types of players that partake in online gambling.  Some are merely dabbling with the experience while others tend to hop from site to site in search of an advantage.  The type of players online casinos love is those who stick around and become regular customers.  Players such as these are often rewarded handsomely for their loyalty, but the actual rewards largely depend on how much they wager.  VIP representatives are casino employees designated to ensuring these special players receive their benefits.  They generally keep track of wagering levels and inform players on the benefits they are eligible for and what needs to be done to claim them.

Customer Support Agents

Support is one of the most critical aspects of online casino gaming.  What makes it so important is that this is an environment deals with a high degree of virtual features and automation where human intervention is quite limited on the casino side.  The support staff is usually highly skilled in dealing with various aspects of the casino operation as well as customer relations.  An online casino that lacks in the support department is often one that will lose a lot of customers very quickly.

Affiliate Program Managers

Affiliate programs are systems used to help online casinos drive interested traffic to their sites.  These programs allow individuals and businesses to earn commissions from the internet gambling industry by directing users to the casino sites through banner and text link advertisements.  Once the user signs, up, the affiliate gets a percentage of the sale.  The job of the affiliate manager is to oversee the program by providing affiliates with comprehensive details of their stats, sales and most importantly, making sure they are promptly and accurately compensated.

As you can see, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of an online casino operation.  While you will only see one name on the marquee, it takes the role of several different parties to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.