\nLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tBusinesses need customers to stay in business. And because of the federal government\u2019s nanny-state ban on interstate Internet gambling, Nevada\u2019s promising online poker industry doesn\u2019t have enough customers to sustain competing companies.<\/p>\n
\tUltimate Gaming, which 19 months ago became the nation\u2019s first legal, regulated, real-money online wagering website, announced Friday that it was shutting down. The company, launched by majority owner Station Casinos, couldn\u2019t come close to revenue projections because federal law allows online gambling only within the borders of each of the 50 states. Although Ultimate Gaming said it had customers create accounts from all 50 states and many other countries, each of those customers had to be in Nevada physically to use the site.<\/p>\n
\tThus, the full reach of a world-changing technology that gives even the smallest home-based business a global customer base has been denied to companies that clearly have great global demand for their product.<\/p>\n
\tAfter all, just 3\u00bd years ago, Americans enjoyed playing real-money online poker with friends, family and complete strangers from everywhere. Then, in 2011, the Justice Department swooped in and closed online poker operators with heavy-handed force under a flawed interpretation of the 50-year-old Wire Act. Later that year, the Justice Department clarified its action by ruling that online poker was just fine, provided games weren\u2019t played across state lines.<\/p>\n
\tProhibition didn\u2019t halt the use of alcohol, it hasn\u2019t reduced demand for illegal drugs, and it hasn\u2019t stopped online poker play. To this day, Americans continue to play cards on unregulated, off-shore poker websites.<\/p>\n
\tNevada retains the gaming industry\u2019s gold standard in regulation, so the 2013 Legislature moved quickly to allow online poker within the state\u2019s borders, passing enabling legislation in a single day. Companies invested heavily in the technology with the hope that multistate compacts, allowing states to pool their players, or congressional action legalizing and regulating interstate online poker would reward their risks. But Congress isn\u2019t eager to turn back the clock, and thus far only two other states \u2014 New Jersey and Delaware \u2014 have legalized online gaming.<\/p>\n
\tThe closure of Ultimate Gaming leaves Caesars Entertainment\u2019s WSOP.com, affiliated with the World Series of Poker, and the South Point\u2019s Real Gaming as the only two real-money poker websites in the state. As reported last week by the Las Vegas Review-Journal\u2019s Howard Stutz, Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling said federal restrictions \u201ccreated an extremely cost-prohibitive and challenging operating environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tUnfortunately, it\u2019s going to stay that way until federal law changes. Online poker is not a threat to the republic. Congress should recognize the overwhelming stupidity of this policy and reverse it as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Businesses need customers to stay in business. And because of the federal government\u2019s nanny-state ban on interstate Internet gambling, Nevada\u2019s promising online poker industry doesn\u2019t have enough customers to sustain competing companies. Ultimate Gaming, which 19 months…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}