A three hour testimony took place recently in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was on a bill, Assembly Bill 258, which is being pushed by PokerStars to instigate online poker into the state of Nevada. However, so far, no conclusion has been reached.
The Testimony
PokerStars is one of the largest online gambling sites. Visitors can play a wide variety of games and tournaments over the Internet. A number of witness, ranging from lawyers and economists to professional poker players, were put forward by PokerStars in an attempt to win over the committee.
A main argument put in place was that such a bill would bring in a large number of jobs, 1180 according to Jeremy Aguero, an economist from Las Vegas. The yearly salaries would then amount to $7.7 million which would mean taxes of between $37 million and $65 million. One of the fears is that if this bill isn’t put forward, other businesses could move into Nevada and begin their own Internet poker enterprises.
Another benefit is that it’s felt women will be more drawn to Internet poker. Casinos are a particularly male dominated environment and some women may be intimidated. However, gambling online takes away from this discomfort.
The Opposition
Currently, however, Assembly Bill 258 has not had the approval of the Nevada Resort Association.
A major issue is that Internet gambling is currently illegal. Last year, a bill put forward to change this was dismissed by the Senate. Members of PokerStars hope that a federal law will see that Internet poker is legalized throughout the nation.
One of the reasons why Internet poker hasn’t been given the legal go-ahead is that children could easily steal credit cards and could then use these online to gamble. A concern is that there’s no sure way of controlling this. The main argument against this is that in order to play you need to proffer other forms of identification, including digits from Social Security numbers and how long an individual has occupied their present address.
Another argument put forward was that if people could play online, why would they bother visiting any of the casinos? Restaurants and bars would also lose out due to a reduction in tourists. The counter argument to this is that it would, in fact, achieve the opposite and encourage people to visit Nevada.
The Current Situation
At the moment, within Nevada, poker doesn’t bring much money into the state. In fact, the revenue is used to simply keep the industry going. A major fear of PokerStars is that a federal bill could be a long time coming. What this will mean is that other states will be able to steam ahead and start bringing in the profits, leaving Nevada far behind. In essence, it appears that if the state really wants to reap in the rewards, it should take action now.