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The New Realities for American Sports Bettors, Part II

By FreedomAtStake | View all Posts
Posted Monday, May 30, 2011 01:32 PM

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Continuing from Part I...

2 - This isn't going to change anytime soon.

Last week, I attended the IGaming Conference in Dublin, where Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., head of the American Gaming Association, was a keynote speaker.

Fahrenkopf has been a gaming lobbyist for decades. He knows the landscape. He knows how to straddle a fence while keeping both ears to the ground.

This is a guy who has managed to maintain the completely untenable political position that the AGA supports online gaming legalization and regulation because Americans should be allowed to spend their money where they please, while at the same time promoting that all current online operators are criminals who should be hunted down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Consistency is apparently not a requisite for lobbyists.

Regardless, what does Fahrenkopf think about the future of online gambling?

He predicts that a bill legalizing online poker will be launched by the fall and that it will pass. He thinks that this will be a nice gateway to eventually legalize other online casino games within a few years.

Great! What does he think about the possibility of legalizing sports gambling?

I'm going to paraphrase him here, but his quote was something along the lines of, "Uh-uh. No way. Not gonna happen. Fuhgeddaboudit."

The current American laws sports gambling are so solid against the activity that it will take years just to get those laws unraveled, let alone get the practice legalized online. Witness the trouble New Jersey has had in getting sports gambling legalized - and New Jersey is a state that is quite familiar with gambling.

So - yeah – unless you live in Nevada, you can forget about that dream you had of someday being able to go online and take advantage of those sweet odds you saw at Caesars.

Continue reading Part III here...

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User:	Freedom@Stake
Joined:	July 1995
Location:	Ireland
Team:	Florida State Seminoles
Occupation:	Media

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