CASINO FREE PLAY - Gambling

“none of my clients would try to put in Internet wagering because they would jeopardize their license,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association which is the main lobbyist organization for Nevada’s hotels. “It’s illegal for them to take bets outside Nevada.”

Nevada casinos won’t be muscling into online booking anytime soon. Nevada race books did just receive approval to accept bets outside the state for the first time. However, this is just phone wagering. They won’t be joining 17 other states that permit online race betting. Nevada also is one of only five states where Internet gambling is outlawed, although no individual bettors have been prosecuted for betting online.

The MGM Mirage, which owns a number of major hotels in Las Vegas including Bellagio, Treasure Island and New York New York, has been the most aggressive pushing for online betting. MGM Mirage chairman Terry Lanni said”The fact is that millions of U.S. citizens currently participate in on-line gaming in an unregulated environment. We believe that a more sound and realistic public policy would be to regulate the activity and hold operators to the highest standards of probity and integrity.”

If the U.S. wises up and decides to regulate and tax online gambling, then the MGM Mirage could once again become a player on the Internet. However, the guy sitting in front of his private computer drinking a Budweiser and making an online wager on the Raptors isn’t necessarily the same customer who flies to Vegas. covers.com source

Online gaming group Betcorp has decided to close its operations rather than attempting to cope with new legislation outlawing Internet gambling in the United States.

The firm, which is listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, agreed to sell its online betting business to Bodog Entertainment in a deal worth $11m (£5.9m).
Betcorp, which earned 85 per cent of its revenues from US customers in the past four months, said it would struggle to cope without income from the US.

“The board has considered whether its non-US business could be profitable and decided that does not have access to the funds required to adopt these strategies” said the Australian-based Betcorp in a statement.

Meanwhile, online gaming rival 32Red yesterday said total third quarter revenues increased by 56 per cent to £4.2m compared with the same period last year. The company, which sponsors Aston Villa Football Club, said its active customer base stood at 49,898 compared with 6,708 last year.