cornerstone Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 I was wondering what you were all thinking about the upcoming US online gambling / poker ban (likely to be signed in the next couple of weeks - if you are in the US and have winnings in a gambling account get them out NOW). A lot of the coverage has concentrated on the gambling companies' bottom lines, but I wonder what the effects will be on: ONLINE ADVERTISING? Online gambling is one of the few seriously profitable industries on the net, and their advertising dollars underpin a lot of other sites. Do you think there will be fallout elsewhere with less online advertising (especially to the US market, or US-only sites)? Most of the ads at the bottom of the page here are casino ads for example. ELECTIONS? Online gambling is obviously popular in the US. Telling people that they can't do something they enjoy, and sneaking in the legislation as an amendment to an unrelated bill about ports (!), just doesn't sound like a recipe for massive popularity to me. Anyway, thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfreeman420 Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 I developed, marketed and owned Pokerking.com up until january of this year. At that time google and yahoo weren't taking PPC advertising from gambling sites. You had to rely on affiliate pages, bulk email and banner advertising which is extremely expensive. Party Poker spends roughly $3,000,000 per month which isn't much considering they rake about $2,000,000 per day. The new TV ads circumvent the laws by advertising their .net sister sites that are free and offer free tournaments to new players. This is after the DOJ confiscated over $2,000,000 from the travel chanel a couple years ago that was paid by Party poker. I have recieved emails from 2 sites I belong to telling me they no longer cater to US players and to cash out my account. I feel the recent arrests of betonsports.com owners have put a scare into the offshore companies. i also think the US has pretty big cojones [censored]ing with people who run a legitimate publicly traded company. No matter how hard they try, they will never stop online poker. 70% of all online gambling comes from the US market. Americans want to gamble. This is just a half communist right wing pre election strategy to appeal to the ultra conservative bible thumpers of the midwest. Another attempt to dictate what grown adults can do in their own home. Go to this website to write you congressman if you are in favor of keeping it legal Poker players alliance BTW, there is no specific law against online gambling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornerstone Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Yes, you're right about this amendment not banning online gambling - it just makes it impossible to take any winnings. I wonder if there has been some sort of Washington lobbying by (say?) casinos to get this in place (pure speculation), because it doesn't seem to add up with elections looming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfreeman420 Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 I have heard speculation that Vegas and US base casinos are putting pressure on the government to control online gambling because it is taking away from their land based casinos. Whether this is true or not, online gambling doesn't replace lands based casinos at all. The average online gambler is penny ante compared to the average Vegas gambler who drops $1300 in a weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornerstone Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 It seems odd, and the manner of it even odder. Online gambling looks like the ideal recruiting ground for physical casinos, you would think. Look at the poker craze - the internet has been a massive part of that. Not everyone can go to Vegas every week. The alternatives then would be illegal games. Would that be better than regulated online gambling? Or even taxed online gambling? It just doesn't seem very well thought out.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkerouac Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 It seems odd, and the manner of it even odder. Online gambling looks like the ideal recruiting ground for physical casinos, you would think. Look at the poker craze - the internet has been a massive part of that. Not everyone can go to Vegas every week. The alternatives then would be illegal games. Would that be better than regulated online gambling? Or even taxed online gambling? It just doesn't seem very well thought out.... If or when the casino companies are able to own online gambling, then the rules will change, just as these companies opposed gambling outside Nevada and Atlantic City....until they were in a position to own or manage the casinos themselves. As for the US and state governments, I do not gamble, online or in casinos, but it is hypocritical for them to run and promote lotteries and other games of chance while at the same time outlawing their competition on "moral" grounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfreeman420 Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 As for the US and state governments, I do not gamble, online or in casinos, but it is hypocritical for them to run and promote lotteries and other games of chance while at the same time outlawing their competition on "moral" grounds. I agree. Especially since the law excludes horse and dog races as well as lotto. Is betting on animals who are bread specifically to be kept in small stalls except when they are running and then put down when they are no longer useful moral? I find it even more hippocritical that here in florida the government views slot machines as more of a game of skill than poker thus restricting betting limits at the poker table but not on slots. The people making these law really have no clue about morality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkerouac Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Back when I lived in Chicago, the state put billboards up along a CTA line through a rough part of town promoting one lottery game or another: "From Division Street to Easy Street" Message: All you have to do is spend your limited income on lottery tickets rather than food or education. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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