Canada Gambling Conference Hears Online Poker Debat
Written by Renee K | Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
At the recent gambling conference held in Canada, the subject to online poker was definitely one of the hotter ones debated, with many of the delegates expressing their sentiments regarding the future of this sector the industry.
One of the most common sentiments expressed was that the meaningless laws in the United States and, to a lesser degree, Canada contributed to a waste of resources and potential revenue that states and provinces could benefit from if there existed a legal and regulated online poker framework. Naturally, at a conference geared at gambling, this would be the type of comments expected to be heard, however, objectively, it is easy to see that they are simply correct in their opinions.
Participants seemed to sense the urgency of the situation and agreed that if states and provinces did not wake up to the fact that they are losing out so much, and that competition is getting tougher by the day with sites such as Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker, they would be at the losing end in a big way. “PokerStars, if nothing changes, will become the Google of poker in the United States, and it will be more and more difficult for land-based and other licensees across the country to get involved and get those customers back if we wait too long,” said the President of Next Enterprise, Dan Grevlos at the conference.
It cannot be ignored that many US states have already recognized the importance of introducing online poker in one form of another, and a number of Canadian provinces announced at the conference that they are only a few months away from launching a joint online poker and gambling platform.
States also spelled out the obstacles that they expect to face, besides the obvious in the form of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). California, for example, is doing all it can to move forward, however the state is still facing opposition by Indian tribes who protect their monopoly jealously. Californian state senator, Roderick Wright, said: “I’ve heard that we could make $4 billion playing in California. I’ve also heard that we may not make squat. What’s the real number? Hell, I don’t know. But there’s a whole lot space between squat and $4 billion.”
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
