At a press conference yesterday, the chief executive of the American Gaming Association Frank Fahrenkopf led a group of land based casino executives in calling for legislation of online gaming where they will reportedly, “make their pitch to lawmakers and White House officials over the coming days.”
“It’s time we take a look at this,” said Virginia McDowell, president and CEO of the Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc., according to an article in the Las Vegas Sun.
Even after the passage of the UIGEA in 2006, Americans continued to participate in online gaming. The Las Vegas Sun article also quoted Fahrenkopf as saying, “The millions of American who are playing poker online deserve to know they are playing safely with law-abiding operators”.
Meanwhile, Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment released the following in their 2011 quarterly report:
“Finally, we believe strongly that the recent federal indictments of illegal online poker operators should convince Congress to allow American citizens to play online poker and to allow American companies to compete in a multi-billion-dollar industry. By acting now to legalize a game enjoyed by millions of adult citizens, Congress can clarify ambiguous federal laws, generate tax revenues for federal and state governments and bring thousands of jobs to this country.”
Caesars Entertainment owns the World Series of Poker brand and currently offers real money online poker, but does not operate in the US market where some estimate the online gaming market to be worth as much as $4 billion dollars a year. In an article in The Hill, Fahrenkopf states the he believes that online gaming can “generate an estimated 10,000 high-tech jobs” and “$2 billion in tax revenue every year”.
