Nevada Waiting on Harry Reid’s Gambling Position
Gaming in Nevada is up for serious debate. One thing that the gaming community wants to know is whether or not US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in support of internet gambling or not. The reason this is such a huge question is because land-based casinos in the state are worried. Their operators are suffering financially and have been since the recession. One thing that happened as a result of the recession was people stopped gambling. That put casinos everywhere in debt and caused them to have to scramble to find new customers and ways of bringing in the millions they needed for sustaining a business. In particular Las Vegas casinos have suffered because they have one main industry—gambling. Much like Detroit, Michigan, Las Vegas suffered due to that one industry. Detroit is another city that was built on auto manufacturing. When the auto industry fell, Detroit was left with few options for revival financially. In the same way Las Vegas built its economy on gambling and when that declined, there were few other options for survival. Now, the state is still trying to recover.
Industry insiders are all waiting with baited breath on the decision Harry Reid makes regarding online gambling. Land-based gambling companies are concerned that if online gambling is approved it will infringe on their already suffering market. Plus with the outstanding gaming online companies can provide, land-based casinos may not be able to compete. It could be a substantial problem for gaming companies if Reid is a pro-online gambling representative. So far the only details that have been rumored are that Reid will support the approval of online poker, but not online gambling. He will draw the line on other games, and leave them to the world of land-based casinos in the state of Nevada. Gaming companies in the state need to know where the market is going and need to make changes to their own business models. If online poker is allowed, land-based casinos still have the chance to provide other forms of gambling games. If online gambling in general is allowed, then land-based casinos may have more problems. They need to come up with some viable ways of responding to the expansion of the gambling market in Nevada.
