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The world of US gambling is changing quickly. There are many people who are ready for gambling initiatives to be implemented, but that isn’t happening fast enough for them. The US still is working under the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The bill originally was meant to protect US gamers by banning the online gambling activity. In the end though, all it did was push online gamblers into the welcoming arms of offshore gambling companies. Billions of non-recoverable dollars were channeled out of the country and that is now posing to be a problem for legislators. Since the recession, the US legislators are looking for new ways to bring in cash. They know that without some serious new streams of income they are going to be that much more stifled when it comes to getting the turnaround funds needed to recover. Gambling is the perfect solution. People have proven that they will wager and that they will wager in huge numbers. This means that there are billions of dollars to be had IF the US lawmakers are willing to visit the issue with intentional focus.

There are some legislators who have been pushing twice as hard for change. They recognize the advantages of bringing gambling online to the US market. Still, they have a lot of opposition to deal with as they continue to debate their positions. There is a new bill on the table that would allow for online gambling to enter the US market and this is now being coupled up with another bill that is not related to gambling at all. It could be that the bill will allow the change to be made though. Almost under their nose, the bill could squeak by and become a law in coming months. There is one caution however—if legislators don’t address the gambling online issue and its legality, they could be passing up changes in the near future. It is no secret that if this issue isn’t settled soon it could be shelved for another two years. That would seriously put the US back when it comes to moving in on the lucrative market and cost the country billions of dollars when all the numbers are tallied.

There are a lot of changes in the market of online gambling. Part of the reason for that is the varying laws and regulations that are changing at record speeds. Right now Silversands Casino operators know that better than probably anyone else. The company is being faced with possible eviction from Cyprus. The company is based there and has been since its beginning a few years ago. It was happily residing there paying a moderate taxation to house its gambling entity. That could all change due to the changing laws. Cypress is in plans to possibly start banning casino operators and online gaming in total. This is a difficult decision for the small country, but it is one that legislators have not made without a lot of debates. Though there are millions of tax revenue dollars to be had, legislators are seriously debating a complete ban on the activity. This of course would push the companies in the area out if they are directly involved with the activity.

This is a string of bad news for Silversands Casino operations. They recently heard the same news from South Africa when the country opted to eliminate gambling. It too was after a long period of strong debates from each side. Many experts believed that legislations would be open to gambling due to the money and that alone would sway them to do whatever they needed to do to make it happen. This is proving to not be the case in more and more countries that are banning online gambling and gaming, in general. If the changes in Cyprus do go through it is going to be bad news for more companies than just Silversands. There are quite a few companies that call the country home and are hoping to maintain their citizenship there. It is going to force them to relocate and cut the market out of their business completely. In today’s highly competitive market, that isn’t the easiest thing to do. They are being asked to completely sever a market. Only time will tell what is going to happen, but most likely it looks like Cyprus legislators have made their decision. They recently issued a statement confirming that they believe online gaming is what is pushing their stats on crime up and putting players at a disadvantage in terms of online protections.

Washington state legislators have made no secret of their anti-gambling stance. Lawmakers for the state continue to push out gambling and have banned it in the online world. Full Tilt Poker was the latest company to feel the cold shoulder of the state. The company just announced that they are pulling out of the state’s market by no longer offering real-money play to gamers under that jurisdiction. The state actually blocked the casino from continuing operation for real-money wagers. Players can still play games, but they cannot do so from the actual state of Washington. If they are outside of the state, they can use their accounts for playing. It was a decision spurred on by the Washington State Supreme Court a few months ago. The courts decided that there should be a ban on the games. Despite the huge dollars available, they believe that gambling has no place within the state. Some experts stated that eventually legislators would relent, but little did they know how staunch on the decision lawmakers really were. They aren’t swayed by the tax revenue and are sticking to their anti-gambling guns.

If you go to the Full Tilt Poker website you can find a page specifically geared towards Washington state visitors. They can get all of their questions answered here and know what the actual decision making process was like. Full Tilt owners still commit to offering gaming for residents who play outside of the state, and to continue to develop games, but cannot offer gaming to state residents. There are a few clarifications on the page and if you have any questions regarding the decision, this is a great place to start gathering information. Gamers who had money in their accounts can get information on how to withdraw their cash funds through the cashier or keep their accounts funded if they plan on gaming at the casino from beyond the state’s borders. Overall it was a startling decision and in a lot of ways residents were caught off guard by it. Only time will tell if things are going to change, but most likely state legislators are not going to change their minds anytime soon on the gambling issue.

Every customer will be given a card that records their wagering habits. It works a lot like a customer care card that restaurants use…when they buy meals or other specials, it is tracked. Then the restaurant sends out specials that feature that directly. For example, let’s say you come in and buy steaks two times in a row. The casino gives you a customer card and when it is swiped, it tracks those two steak dinners. Let’s say they introduce a new steak dinner; when you go in the restaurant may offer you $5 off if you purchase it. On the other hand, the card may work on a rewards basis. Let’s say you buy $50 worth of meals. The customer card will trigger a bonus of $5 or %10 off your next meal or maybe a free desert. These are all ways of helping you to earn more back thanks to your older purchases. It works a lot like frequent flyer miles in that the more you buy, the more you earn back. That is exactly what is happening with casinos now.
Foxwoods Resort Casino is offering the same type of card now. Three hundred customers have already been given that customer card that they swipe before they wager. The card then logs what games they are playing, how much you are wagering and how often. That then provides a way for the casino to track your overall gaming preferences. It can help you to make the most of your wagers. The casino currently offers 3,000 slot machines to customers and that means that anyone wagering there have a huge selection of games to enjoy. Foxwoods Resort Casino is taking the initiative with marketing and gathering information to base future gaming plans on.

You can expect in the market that more and more companies are going to be doing the same types of research and rewards systems for their customers—depending on how well the program works. Even if they do get rid of it, it still is going to leave them with valuable information on who their gaming public is, and how to better reach and serve them.

Change in the gambling market is common. Right now the market is leveling itself due to changing rules legislators are toying with. Though online gambling isn’t yet legalized in the US, that doesn’t mean that legislators aren’t working hard to make it happen. They want to make sure that people have the ability to wager online and the governments have the chance to take advantage of the huge tax revenue dollars that casinos bring in. Part of their goal is to overcome the aftermath of the recent recessionary period. It left more than a few countries with huge deficits and problems with their financial states. The US is still toying with various rules and regulations when it comes to gambling online but nothing solid has made its way into legislation as of yet. Right now there are a few law makers who are making it a priority, but they aren’t finding as much support as they would like to push the issue forward. The UIGEA as of now still stands—this is a bill that deems online gambling transactions illegal and forces banking institutions to flag and deny them as they come in. It is one of the biggest problems with gambling today and it could be the most detrimental bills on the table. Part of the problem is that the UIGEA doesn’t define what gambling is or what it includes. This is making it difficult for everyone involved to manage their own online gambling entities.

There are solutions on the table, but none of them have been accepted yet. There is some caution that if legislators don’t make it a priority soon, then the issue will be put off for another two years, leaving the US without the ability to take advantage of tax revenue dollars. At a time when the states are sorely in need of the money, this makes it even more difficult for them to continue without it. If legislators are to make decisions on the issue though, they are going to have to do it quickly. If the issue ends up being shelved for another two years, it could prove difficult to ever implement a workable gambling law.

One of the biggest issues with online gambling today is censorship. More and more legislators are starting to censor websites that offer online gambling to their state’s residents. Just consider Asian countries—they have banned some internet IPs and forced gambling companies to retreat from the market. They are also banning the companies from advertising on television and radio, along with billboard and print advertising. This is raising the question of whether or not governments are allowed to step in and ban activities based on what they think isn’t right for their citizens. Poker Stars has been the latest casino to see a ban. Now it is Nine Network and Network Ten that have both come together to ban the casino’s online advertising in Australia. They claim that the ads are a breach of advertising regulation in the country. Right now the country works under a certain list of rules specific to the online gambling market and these are the rules they are arguing.

This is a blow for Poker Stars. The online casino is one of the biggest in the country and has made a great showing for itself in the market. They pour millions of dollars into advertising over their fiscal year and hope for more and more notoriety to continue to grow the brand. Of course poker itself is a great game and showing its own huge growth market right now. With Poker Stars focusing mainly on the game, it is putting itself in a great position for gambling excellence. Right now the Australian government is standing in the way for that growth though. The state’s authorities claim that the International Gaming Authority prohibits promoting online gambling on television. Of course the networks are claiming that the inclusion of players for free is a way around the rule, but the IGA isn’t buying the argument. Rather they are continuing with their censorship plan and making it difficult for Poker Stars, Nine Network and Network Ten to continue their affiliations with each other. Only time will tell what is going to happen in the future as poker gambling continues to grow in popularity, but surely Australian legislators are going to have to revisit the issue in the near future.

One of the problems with online gambling is anti-gambling activists claim that it could endanger underage people. The legal gambling age in British Columbia for example is 18 and over. Though this is the case, the country has run ads on television that seem to target a much younger audience. Traditionally, if you want to see what demographic a company is seeking out, all you have to do is look at their commercial campaigns. You can see what market they want attract. For example, you won’t see a baby stroller product being advertised with senior citizens as main characters. You also won’t see a mini-van with college-aged students involved as main characters. Rather, minivans are promoted to mothers and fathers; while, baby strollers are promoted to late-twenty to thirty-year old consumers. Marketing is a huge element of any business’ success these days and companies put millions into marketing research. They want to know how to best reach the demographic they want buying their products and the demographic they can easily create value for. Unfortunately in British Columbia the rules were skewed a bit as gaming companies directed commercials that seemed targeted for people too young. Experts are warning that this could encourage young people to start wagering illegally, and in turn hurt them.

It was the BK Lottery Corporation that was running the ads and making the lottery highly attractive to the young market. One expert equated the ads to promoting smoking to underage teenagers. If gaming companies are going to be allowed to advertise in the mainstream, then they are going to have to be responsible and BK legislators are hoping to make that a ruling. Right now the incident was a sign of how things are changing and how aggressive promotion is getting these days. The world of gambling is highly competitive and that is pushing companies to do whatever they can to garner more customers. Though this is a necessity with any strong and growing business, it could also be taken overboard and hurt the public. Legislators are taking the criticism and are now looking into their own involvement with gaming companies and their advertising plans.

The anti-gambling activists who are standing against legalizing gaming believe that legalization of gambling online will inevitably bring in crime, corruption, money laundering and addictions. This has yet to be proven but they have a good argument. It only stands to reason that if you increase the pool of people allowed to gamble, there will be more incidents that are questionable rising. Plus when people see that gambling is legal and lucrative, they may try to hold their own illegal gambling activities. There have been incidents as of late to prove their case too. For example, Canada has Stewart Goldstein. Goldstein is being charged with fraud regarding the Bank of Montreal. He allegedly bilked the bank out of $600,000. Goldstein claims though that he was strong armed throughout the entire deal and is claiming an even bigger mafia-like ring is at fault. He was just a “pawn” the ring used and he is the easy target in the intricate and illegal dealings. Goldstein is accused of racking p a huge amount of debt during his affiliation with the mafia-organized gambling ring. In fact, it reached upwards of $1.5 million. He failed to address his debt or the interest involved with it and that is what caused his problems in the start. Since he could not pay the debt, he was left at the mercy of the illegal gambling operators and they called the slots allegedly on what he was forced to do illegally.

This is a sign of how things in the gambling world can go wrong. Anti gambling activists are having a field day with the information and the incidents in the world of gambling like this one that prove there is some concern regarding activities. The police force needed to watch over these activities could be substantial. This alone could mean an additional millions of dollars in expenses for states in the future. They could easily eat away at their funding from legalizing gambling and have to put millions into shoring up their police task forces. Of course this is only one incident, but it could be a sign of what legislators face as they continue to push and change rules regarding legalizing and regulating gambling.

Canada has had its own share of gambling problems throughout the past few months. Washington state legislators made a stand against gambling this past month by banning it. It was thought that the voting public was warming up to the idea of legalizing gambling but the November ballot told otherwise. It seems that residents of the state voted to keep gambling out. And the vote’s tallies were not evenly divided; the state voters in much larger numbers requested that gambling not be brought into the market. They don’t want the gambling activity to be legalized or regulated, despite promises of additional tax revenue dollars and jobs. It was a startling message for legislators who believed that the voting public was coming around. Now things continue to push towards keeping gambling out of the state.

The Seattle PI published reports recently stating that its federal prosecuting body is confiscating over $550,000 in gambling related funds from a company that is based in Canada for operations. The prosecutors originally started the issue with a civil complaint that requested the company forfeit their money. It is Secure Money, Inc. that is under question and has mailed various monetary amounts to poker gamers in the state. Now, this is being cited as a direct violation of the state’s ban on casino gambling and internet gambling too. Because of this, the company is under fire for not only breaking the law, but also delineating payment. The payments are also under question because they were not handed out as direct “gambling wins”, but rather disguised under “payroll checks” to the residents. Prosecutors state that this is a clear sign that the company knew it was acting illegally and was purposefully going out of its way to hide its illegal activities. The Assistant US Attorney is involved in the issue and noted that Secure Money Inc. dispensed the funds and need to be brought up on charges now. This is a sign of how strict the state’s legislators are being on the issue of online gambling and how they are going to push for a stricter law on it in the future.

Though there is a lot of good news in the market of gambling online, there are still problems to be sorted out. Don’t think that the US is anywhere closer to settling its issues. Overall the states are all fighting it out on the legislative front trying to make sense of gambling law and make things beneficial and safe for all parties involved. One state that is opting to push against the legalization of online gambling is Washington. Washington has long been in debates, with a push to keep wagering out of its jurisdiction. Legislators believe that it would be a mistake to legalize gambling, despite the millions of potential dollars they are denying with the move. They seem to not be interested in the revenue and see the move as an overall detrimental one in the long run. Now FullTiltPoker.com has stopped offering real money gaming to residents of the state. Legislators in the state earlier passed an anti-gambling bill in 2007. Though there was a lot of fighting against it, the Supreme Court ruled that it would uphold its prohibition longer. This means that residents are not legally allowed to wager. This caused Full Tilt Poker to rethink their offering of the game to the public.

The announcement came down earlier this year when an official press release came out stating that Full Tilt Poker would no longer be offering real money gaming to the state’s residents. They are following state law and though it pains them to leave, they have no choice. Players can still wager for free, but time will tell how many still do. If the laws change, Full Tilt executives stated that they would be more than happy to take over the market again. Most likely the company is not going to officially pull out because they want to be ready for a time that the laws may change. The world of gambling is changing by the month and laws are being created to turn things around. Full Tilt Poker is already thoroughly up and running within the state so why shouldn’t it wait and see what the future may hold? It could be that the market will change and Full Tilt Poker will become a leader with real money gambling in Washington State again.