As it stands right now, individual states are absolve to prohibit or practice gambling within their borders while significant restrictions and limits are put on interstate and this activity. Recently, online game playing has seen harsher rules. With the Unlawful Web Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIEGA), it was not explicitly banned but rather it was online financial transactions that were outlawed. This meant that all online financial transactions from gambling providers were now illegal which led to numerous offshore gambling operators excluding US clients from their services.

Existing in this legal grey area, it is no longer a query of if online gambling will get into the united states market but when and perhaps how. As recently as this month, three states contain legalized online gambling and plan to begin offering bets by the end of the year. Naturally, a gaming organization in Las Vegas referred to as Ultimate Gaming was the first ever to offer online poker but for now restricting it to sole players in Nevada. Situs Toto and Delaware also have legalized online gambling and so far ten other states are considering legalizing it in some form or another.

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Games Association has mentioned that “Unless you will find a federal bill passed, we will have the best expansion of legalized gambling in the United States. I don’t think that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re seeing.” This poses many questions and of course concerns for most existing commercial casinos along with American policy makers. Will lawful online gambling mean fewer people in brick and mortar casinos? Will this develop a new source of revenue at hawaii and national level? Think about taxes and regulations? A rise in gamblers?

Many people including Arnie Wexler, past chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling has voiced concern that with all the good this could do to create income and revenue for individual states there may be problems with an increase in compulsive gambling. There’s particular concern regarding social media marketing in the US as some places like Zynga have already begun taking real-money bets.

Taking in mind all the questions and concerns, many resort casinos are already making plans to broaden into online gambling to check their actual physical casinos. Geoffrey Stewart, general office manager of Caesars Online Poker has said “Like any business, you’re always looking for what is another distribution channel.”