Speculation about impending US legislative changes was rife among delegates at the iGaming North America conference in Las Vegas this week.
It seems that the Department of Justice ruling has excited the sector, with attendance at the second annual iGNA conference up 50 per cent on last year’s event and operators making up around half of that number.
Reporting back from the event for iNTERGAMINGi, commercial director at Zukido, David Sargeant, said that there is a wariness to regulate. To get it wrong will open up a can of worms and many delegates feel most states are looking to Nevada to regulate poker first, before following their lead.
The operators came from casinos, poker rooms, tribal gaming, lotteries, racing and even hopeful sports betting companies to hear about how they can take advantage of the newly re-emerging online gaming industry in the US.
The big question on everyone's lips is, of course, when there will be online gaming regulation and what it will be. According to Sargeant, most attendees at the conference seemed to think that state-by-state regulation will continue to drive the agenda and that there is no appetite at federal level to push through a change in law, especially with upcoming elections.
For Sargeant, it feels as if the industry has been at a standstill since UIGEA and companies in the US are asking many of the same questions that were left unanswered six years ago. Sue Schneider of eGaming Brokerage, one of the organising groups, commented: "The DoJ letter was significant and so many states are now looking at regulation as a result. There will be some legislative changes before the next conference in 2013."
The full report from the conference will appear in the next issue of iNTERGAMINGi, due out in April.
