In the battle for online gambling in cyberspace, Nevada casinos and multiple state lotteries could be close to a showdown — one that will shape the U.S. gaming industry forever.
The lottery, referred to as "the most popular form of gambling in the world" by Illinois Lottery Superintendent Michael Jones, just months ago broke ground on the Web. Jones, who was speaking on a panel at G2E held Monday in Las Vegas, has so far seen about 100,000 people in his state use the Internet to buy tickets.
Lotteries are powerful entities, gaining acceptance from the residents of a state because a large chunk of the money they lose goes to "good causes," as lottery directors say.
In order to generate even greater revenues, lotteries are also eying casino gambling. Some in Illinois want it under the control and supervision of the lotto. In Delaware, which has legalized web gambling, a synergy will be formed between the lotto and the three local casinos. The District of Columbia once had online poker approved under the control of its lotto, but the law was reversed under a cloud of controversy.
On the other side of the aisle are Nevada and California, who have strong casino interests vying for control of the U.S. web poker market. Despite legalizing it for intrastate business, gaming executives in the Silver State want a federal bill. Not surprisingly, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is behind efforts on Capitol Hill, and he's trying to exclude the lotteries from the game.
In response, the lotteries have talked about lobbying together against a federal bill, according to Scarlet Robinson, an Internet gaming consultant and owner of Rungood Gaming LLC. The lotteries also don't want any legislation to limit games to only poker.
However, unlike the casino giants located in the U.S. pushing for such authorization, state lotteries don't have the lobbying money to oppose a Reid bill with equal force, according to Rick Weil, president of Scientific Games, a maker of lotto systems.
The lotteries' motivation stems from the fear of an aging customer base. The era of Facebook's "social" gaming, as well as a once healthy, but illegal, U.S. web poker industry, has created a fear that younger generations just don't have an interest the lotto.
In an effort to further protect its future, the Illinois lotto will soon launch on mobile devices. The goal is "seductive" front-ends that will one day help replace the baby boomers.
A Nevada casino and a state lotto are now on the cusp of offering similar products.
"The notion that lotteries and casinos are separate industries is outdated," Michael Pollock, managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group, said at the G2E conference.
Once separated by the types of brick-and-mortar joints where the gambling occurred, both will tap into the Internet to appeal to the same demographic.
While lotteries shun web poker run by the feds, some are busy with their own battles on a more local level. In Maryland, the convenient store chain 7-Eleven has "drawn a line in the sand" against Internet lottery tickets, said Stephen Martino, the leader of the state's gambling industry.
According to Martino, Maryland doesn't have a "firm stance" on current federal online gaming efforts, but it wants "states rights" to be preserved. The state recently flirted with the idea of legalizing web casino games for itself.
"States want max profit and more control," Robinson said. "They don't want the feds in gaming."
Nevada, which doesn't have a lottery, also wants power in how it regulates web gambling but only so that its casinos can leverage their exclusive right to intrastate Internet poker by making southern Nevada the hub of a nationwide network. Nevada-based companies also have longstanding relationships with gambling in California and New Jersey.
With widespread Internet lottery sales likely to help escalate jackpots to unprecedented heights, brands will only grow stronger with time. Jones said he envisions a purse reaching $1 billion in the future, which could even attract casino gamblers who wouldn't typically play the lotto.
Wish i could hit the fast forward button to see how this will play out
It will wind up like everything else, the ones who have the most money to promote their side will win.
They need to talk about better games for the players. Those online poker sites..are sucky at best.
This will probably never get solved. Uncle Sam is getting $ from both sides and it would make no sense to favor one side. Nevada should start their own pb/mm game if they lose.
..and the more they dig and dig and root out any competition, you'd better believe the 5 D everyone loves here will be no more...or at least our access to it.
Even though Online Gambling is making its way to the top, still a lot of lottery players are playing manually. They are after the thrill and excitement seeing how their numbers are playing...
The Republican Party platform calls for a ban on all Internet gambling including state lotteries so it depends on who wins the Presidential election next month.
Thanks Stack, I guess I am now no longer undecided on who to vote for.
As for online poker, i think thats stupid. How can you trust the computer programs? Although the same can be said of RNG's i suppose, but i wouldn't trust it. Good thing New York still has good ole fashioned balls. But i would really prefer the option of buying tickets online.
If 7-11 is so intent on drawing a line in the sand then maybe they should have some sort of freebie offer for buying in store, such as a BOGO offer.
The Justice Department, through its interpretation of the Wire Act, has already virtually opened the door to internet gambling and it's extremely doubtful with the mess we're in from the current administration that the new administration would waste any time acting on one obscure sentence added to the Platform to assuage a special interest group when Platforms are routinely ignored.
No one swears any oath to uphold or enforce any item in any Platform and very few even pay any attention to it. Dam* few read it or have any idea what's in it. It's largely ceremonial and soon forgotten. Most people know what each party's general principles and core values are and don't have to look up chapter and verse to find out.
And even if it were a looming threat (which it isn't), anybody who would cast their vote to ensure a convenience in lottery playing over the survival of the nation in one of the most dangerous times in world history would have to be a complete imbecile.
If you are undecided and dont know who to vote for than just think who of the two candidates is the lesser of the two
Manchurians.
If you are a lottery player,
Vote Democrat
Not repugnikan.
Besides the only sane vote is for ron paul.
But the insane establishment would never let a sane man on the ballot. Who would of thunk?
P.S. With all the turmoil in the Middle East and world wide It seems that Democrats and Republicans cant stop their murderous ways and blood lust
, but please please, please
dont murder Big Bird.
Sorry to break it to you Ridge, but there is a slight chance, maybe the odds of winning the PB chance, that you or anybody can do anything to save the nation.
We dont have enough money.
We dont have enough guns.
We dont have enough love.
And we cant agree on what it takes to even win the lottery.
I know ridge, if you and your conservative cronies had their way they would ban chocolate milk in the cafeterias at school.
Of course if you were in office they would replace it with Baileys.
"Sorry to break it to you... but there is a slight chance... that you or anybody can do anything to save the nation."
So said King George and all his yeomen.
"We dont have enough money. "
Oh, we have plenty of money.
"We dont have enough guns."
Oh, we have plenty of guns.
"We dont have enough love."
"What's Love Got To Do With It?"
-Tina Turner
"And we cant agree on what it takes to even win the lottery."
That don't matter a hill o' beans.
"I know ridge, if you and your conservative cronies had their way they would ban chocolate milk in the cafeterias at school."
I can see you don't follow politics after that remark.
Or current events.
The Democrats and Liberals (redundant, I know) have already banned chocolate milk in school cafeterias along with soda and candy.
They are forcing the kids to take vegetables they don't want now with the school lunch and the kids dump them in the garbage.
Now they are installing cameras by the garbage cans to see who is not eating the food that the government has ordered them to eat.
That is the kind of world the Democrats want us to live in.
That is the kind of world that "me and my Conservative Cronies" have always stood against.
"Of course if you were in office they would replace it with Baileys."
I'm glad to see that you're not totally without redeeming qualities.
"...the only sane vote is for ron paul."
You said "sane" and "Ron Paul" in the same sentence, lol. That's rich. The guy who wants to dismantle our military in today's dangerous world.
Isn't Obama dismantling it fast enough? Hell, our navy is already down to the size it was in 1917 and he's going to cut another half trillion dollars out of the military across the board on January 1st when Sequestration starts.
"If you are a lottery player,
Vote Democrat
Not repugnikan."
Yeah, base your vote on a rumor about the lottery, not the fate of the nation.
Makes perfect sense.
Maybe the lottery will survive after the economy collapses.
"With all the turmoil in the Middle East and world wide It seems that Democrats and Republicans cant stop their murderous ways and blood lust..."
Yeah, we're the bad guys, us d*mn Americans.
We should stop hijacking their planes and flying them into their buildings and killing their innocent people with all our murderous ways and blood lust.
"...dont murder Big Bird.
"
Nobody's out to murder Big Bird. But he's a big enough bird to support himself like all the other kiddie shows that don't get the luxury of confiscating money from people's paychecks every week to keep them on the air along with a bunch of liberal yappers who couldn't make it in the free market.
If there's a big enough audience for Big Bird and the lib yappers to attract advertisers they'll survive like every other show does. But to force taxpayers to donate money to keep them all on life-support is ridiculous. Especially when we have to borrow the money from China to do it.
Actually I do keep up with some current events. I did see the 7 year olds having their hands scanned at the cafeteria line. ( NWO Indoctrination)
As far as the military goes. It doesn't matter how big your military is if as on 9-11, the brass in charge yells "STAND DOWN!!"
You can have the most HUMONGOUS military in the world. Its still not gonna protect you from false flag attacks.
Apparntly you dont remember your history. The gulf of tonkin and the reichstag?
I thought you were a Republican? Ron Paul is not a good enough patriot for you? Go ahead vote for Obama again.
But I am totally for Carolans at lunch time. It would give me something to look foward to after all those teachers put me to sleep.
Keeping up with current events and keeping up with conspiracy theories are two different things. One's informative, one's loony.
I see you're committed to the Ron Paul strategy of dismantling the military, sticking our heads in the sand and hoping for the best. Yeah, that'll work. Maybe if we're nice to the religious fanatics who are committed to destroy us, they'll change their minds and be happy shiny people.
I know all about false flags and The Reichstag and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. What's the point?
You think I'm a Republican and then you tell me to go ahead and vote for Obama again? ??? ??? ???
Ron Paul is a patriot? Patriots don't disarm and hope for the best while leaving their families and nation unprotected against bloodthirsty madmen who have pledged to kill us all. Patriots defend their countries.
The point is that all war is staged illusion.
Patriots dont start illigitimate wars looking for imaginary WMD.
Ron Paul is for defending the constitution. Something that Bush and Obama are pretty good at trying to desecrate.
Dont forget those blood thirsty madmen, work for the C.I.A. Maybe you didn't know we trained osama bin laden to be a great terrorist. So we could defend ourselves from the Soviet Union.
Its not a conspiracy theory when its true.
Conspiracy theory is a term the establishment uses to slander people as loony instead of revealing the true facts.
Invading Iraq, Syria, Egypt, possibly Iran, doesn't make me feel any safer. I bet you believe we need to invade IRAN so we can be safe.
Ron Paul doesn't believe we should be the policeman of the world. Thats called facism. Maybe you should read up on your history again.
Maybe you just like being groped by the TSA when you go on flights, and living in a total recall type of world. No thank you.
People are just people wherever you go. Maybe you would learn that if you get out of them darn hills.
"...all war is staged illusion."
Like wow man, if I ever start dropping acid I'll come back and contemplate that one, dude. Far out. Gnarly. Rad. Groovy.
"Patriots dont start illigitimate wars looking for imaginary WMD."
Yeah, I know. They should throw down their weapons and hope for the best while hiding with the women and children. If worse comes to worse, they could just beg and plead for their lives, right? Cuz once they disarm themselves they pretty much have to do whatever the bad guys tell them to do. Sounds like fun.
"Ron Paul is for defending the constitution."
Ron Paul is fine with domestic policy and the Constitution as it pertains to it.
On foreign policy however - he's a nutjob.
A very dangerous nutjob with chronic tunnel vision.
"Invading Iraq, Syria, Egypt, possibly Iran, doesn't make me feel any safer."
I'm glad, cuz we never invaded Syria or Egypt or Iran.
"Ron Paul doesn't believe we should be the policeman of the world. Thats called facism. Maybe you should read up on your history again."
Unilaterally disarming and hoping for the best is not good foreign policy strategy - it's a death wish.
And if you think Ron Paul is some kind of saint you should check out his racist rants sometime - http://www.loop21.com/top-5-racist-ron-paul-quotes-newsletter . And when a racist gets in power his racism soon turns to fascism.
"People are just people wherever you go."
No they're not. There are some very dangerous people in this world who are intent on killing us, who are kept at bay by people willing to do what you think we ought not to do. And those are the people who provide the secure bubble from whence you safely pontificate about the error of their ways.
No we didn't invade Syria or Egypt, we only funded, provided weapons and assisted members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al queda to rise up against their own governments. The same madmen you are afraid of, we are still assisting. How ironic.
Boy Ridge, stay away from the 151 proof moonshine, its gonna make your head cloudy, when you are walking up in those hills, after coming from your stills, you wont know if its a DEA terrorist or a sasquatch coming for you.
No, actually we didn't fund, assist or provide weapons to the Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda in Syria or Egypt. And I'm not afraid of any madmen. But I'll be d*mned if I'd disarm and surrender without a fight like your heroes Ron Paul and Obama want to do. You must be French.
And maybe a swaller o' hooch might keep you from thinkin' all them crazy thoughts like ya do.
...But I'll be d*mned if I'd disarm and surrender without a fight like your heroes Ron Paul"..
how nutty of a notion is it.?..stop pissing countries off and getting involved in thier internal conflicts and they may have a tendency to leave us alone???....
You've got to admit rigde we ain't exactly making any friends just about anywhere anymore.
We can't just keep putting the world in a headlock to bend to our ways and expect that it's not going to backfire at some point.
Defending our borders and airspace is absolutely essential.
Forcing our philosophies and regimes down the throats of middle east countries, is utterly insane, and putting us in harms way.
As long as we maintain our military's strength, we have no business telling the rest of the world how to govern themselves.
With record deficits, our economy going down the toilet, and a moral crises to contend with, don't we have enough of our own problems?
Stop pissing countries off? How? Like not hijacking their planes and flying them into their skyscrapers? Like that?
Is there a chance maybe you could tell them that?
Or should we apologize for polluting their lands with our Christian presence while we developed their oil industry and built all their oil wells for them so they could get rich and start exporting their hate?
We should hope that they may have a tendency to leave us alone?
No, we are Americans, we lead, we don't cower in the corner hoping the bad guys will leave us alone and pick on somebody else. Do you live your life like that? I don't.
Why do libs always think that we're the bad guys?
Exactly how do we stop pissing them off? The Egyptians hate us and we give them billions in aid every year. Is that pissing them off? Or is it their nutty religion? You tell me. We give aid to the Palestinians and Hamas on a regular basis also and they danced in the streets when they saw the towers fall. They hate our guts. Osama Bin Laden is like a national hero there.
You can't hope for love from people like these.
You have to command respect.
And showing indecisiveness and vacillation and limp-wristed resolve with a military in decline and retreat to these people is like an old lion limping in front of a pack of hyenas - when they detect weakness they go in for the kill. They don't care what you used to be - if you show weakness - you're dead meat.
Some people in life just have to be kept in line or they'll do bad things; we all know people like that. You can't let them push you around or it will only get worse. That's just a fact of life. Some people just won't act right unless you keep your boot on their neck, and that will never change.
And one thing is for sure, if you don't keep your boot on their neck, they will sooner or later have their boot on yours.
My source was the Poker Players Alliance that doesn't care which party is in control as long as they pass an Internet Poker Bill. They were equally disappointed when the Democrats failed to mention Internet gaming on their platform.
However there is a huge difference between being silent on a subject and being openly opposed. I'm pretty sure the American people in this election as well as in every other election will vote for the candidate who they believe will benefits them the most regardless what other voters think.
I mentioned the Republican Party platform because someone said they are interested in how it will play out. Speaker of the House John Boehner said he has never read a platform and as Rdgrnr said, platforms are not written in stone. If Internet gaming is your deciding factor, it depends if you think Romney would veto or sign an Internet Gaming Bill.
Personally I'd rather try to pick winning lottery numbers than to try to pick the winner in presidential elections.
You make far too much sense... which means Ridge will likely accuse you of being a flaming liberal.
We do not need to rule the world with an iron fist. Furthermore, given the nature of the threats today, a huge military may hinder us more than it would help. For the most part, our enemies are not nations, they are individuals and small groups, and we need to be nimble so that we can target them while minimizing collateral damage.
Well, I know the American people are smart enough to put the survival of the nation ahead of a false rumor about the lottery when they vote. Just because the Poker Players Alliance which is apparently composed of incredibly stupid people focused on a single dimensional issue is advocating for the Democrats, it doesn't foretell a sea change in voting preferences. Stupid people will always vote for stupid things.
And let's face it, the Democrats have had the "stupid vote" wrapped up for a long, long time now.
F**K That mediabrat. I agree with ridge. Our military is nearly not big enough. I think we should raise taxes to ensure we finally have the biggest military in the world. I think we should never settle for being number two. I mean F**K what the rest of the world thinks. When will we finally have the biggest goddarn military in the world? I dunno.
I mean when 9-11 happened we didn't have not one single plane to scramble! Ridge is right our military was too small to scramble. BIGGER!!! BETTER!! BADDER!!
(Maybe Ridge doesn't realize but since an airplane once crashed into the EMPIRE STATE building, all large skyscrapers are engineered to withstand the impact of large airplanes)
And WTC building 7 coveniently collapses in a controlled demolition after Larry Silverstein the lease holder orders the building to be pulled. Explain that one ridge. And FEMA clean up crews were in N.Y. the Monday before 9-11 to prepare for cleanup. Explain that one ridge. Oh FOX news told you? Wow thanks that cleared it up for me. Just do a search for TOM KENNEY one of the Fema clean up crew.
As a matter of fact it already is the biggest!! But it should be bigger!! And we should put our boot on the neck of the world too! And thrust it down with a vigourous crunch. Long live the New World Order.
But i digress. I just want to play my lottery game online. Is that too much to ask?
Can the U.S. the greatest country in the world really be that f**king backwards?
Yeah they wrapped it up in a man named George W. Bush.
The guy only got into harvard probably because he is a legacy.