Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2012 38 A tthe11thannualGamingLaboratories International (GLI) University Roundtable, held last month at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, a room of over 300 gaming regulators and executives witnessed something that would have been highly unlikely just two short years ago—Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA), the national trade group for the commercial casino industry, actively campaigning for the legalisation and federal regulation of online poker. “There are now 2,000 offshore poker sites accepting bets from 10 to 15 million Americans each day,” an animated Mr Fahrenkopf told the audience.“Most of these sites don’t provide consumer protection or care about issues such as underage and responsible gaming. Creating legislation that legally brings this industry onshore allows it to be policed and regulated, in addition to providing tax revenue and jobs.” This is a far cry from the stance the AGA had on all forms of Internet wagering as recently as 2010; essentially a blanket opposition based on the fact that the technology did not exist to properly regulate Web gaming with appropriate law enforcement oversight. The AGA revised this policy in the light of several developments over the past few years—improvements in geo-location and veri cation technologies, the success the United Kingdom, France, Italy and other rst-world nations had in licensing Internet gaming operators, and the US government crackdown on large offshore poker operators, commonly referred to as “Black Friday.” Perhaps the most important of all was the December decision by the Department of Justice that theWire Act—the law that had been used to suppress all forms of online wagering in the United States— only applied to sports betting, clearing the way for states and the federal government Chipping Away It looks like online poker will be the entrée for gaming operators and vendors looking to exploit the potentially lucrative Internet gaming space, as discussed in this special report by Casino Journal ’s Paul Doocey US Online Gaming Historical and Forecasted Growth 2003 +31% p.a. +1% p.a. +29% p.a. 2004 3.8 2005 5.0 2006 6.1 2007 4.2 2008 4.8 2009 4.7 2010 4.4 2011 4.4 2012 4.3 2013 8.1 2014 10.2 2015 12.1 2016 14.0 2017 15.6 2.8 Potential liberalization UIGEA’bill passed The Conventional Wisdom US online gross yield Current trajectory Projected growth with libersalisation *2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Source: H2 Gambling Capital, Morgan Stanley Research