States in the US are pressing ahead with i-gaming regulation to boost their economies and avoid being caught out by any potential federal legislation, it has been claimed.
Speaking at the World Gaming Executive Summit in Barcelona on Wednesday, legal expert Anthony Cabot, partner at Lewis and Roca in Las Vegas, told delegates that the decision to reverse the US Wire Act was a major step.
He said it effectively means “you can do anything you want within the borders of your state as long as it doesn’t involve sports.”
“Personally, I think it is huge.”
This has paved the way for individual states to begin the process of regulating intrastate i-gaming – with the likes of Nevada already issuing licences. This, Cabot said, is motivated by the desire to use gambling to raise additional tax revenues and to attract new investment into local economies.
There is also an effort to move quickly in order to be exempt from any blanket federal legislation that could potentially prohibit states from permitting i-gaming. Historical precedent suggests that those already engaged in i-gaming would be allowed to continue, even if the federal government introduces restrictions. This was the case for sports wagering, for which Nevada and a handful of other states were exempt.
Cabot suggested that this could well be the reason that many B2B i-gaming companies are forming relationships with Nevada-based operators. Should pre-emptive federal legislation be introduced, he said, Nevada could become the “regulatory jurisdiction of choice.”
The situation is far from certain, however, as efforts to pass bills regulating i-gaming on federal level have yet to succeed. Powerful casino states, those with strong lotteries and influential native American tribes are all expected to play a key role, while on the other side of the issue, one of the land-based gaming industry’s most powerful figures, Las Vegas Sands’ Sheldon Adelson, is understood to be against the introduction of regulated i-gaming.
Add to this the forthcoming presidential election, the strength of the religious right and how contentious an issue gambling is in the US, and the issue looks far from resolved.
