It’s a question that’s loomed over the gambling industry since Internet gaming became a reality: In a battle between brick-and-mortar casinos and online casinos, who wins?
At the 15th International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking, hosted by UNLV at Caesars Palace this week, industry experts and players made their cases in a panel moderated by Joshua Smith of Colliers International Gaming Group. Here’s a look at some highlights of their discussion.
Mark Lipparelli, former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board: “Nevada was the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to develop a comprehensive set of gaming regulations dealing with Internet gaming and recently Ultimate Gaming went live and took the first live U.S. wager over the Internet.
“There’s a lot of pride in the work that’s been done by my former agency. I don’t take a lot of credit for that. We had several people within the agency step up and do a study of a lot of what was going on around the world, and we took piece parts of what thought was good and bad and hopefully constructed a good initial set of regulations and operating procedures that people will have to follow.
“Most certainly those will be revised. Once live, we’ll discover where we pushed too hard and probably discover where we didn’t push enough in public policy relating to the area of Interactive gaming.”
Tom Breitling, CEO of Ultimate Gaming:“We’re proud of that fact, but it also comes with huge responsibility. The governor actually empowered the state of Nevada to take the lead, and it’s really no surprise that Nevada took the leadership role. And everyone was talking about it, but Nevada did it, and our company got engaged about three years ago.
“It’s been over a decade that we’ve been looking at this. This is a fascinating time for this industry. It’s really the emergence of a new industry or the extension of the gaming industry.
“For the first time, we’ve actually generated tax revenue as a result of regulated online gaming. Our company now has over 100 employees, and most of the hiring is happening right here in Nevada. So jobs and taxes are coming back to America. And hopefully the leadership of this industry will come back to America. I think that it’s very real. A lot of people talking about it.”
You can read more about the battle between online gaming and brick-and-mortar casinos at Vegas Inc.
