AGA To Push For Gambling Study Project?

Published: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

AGA TO PUSH FOR ONLINE GAMBLING STUDY PROJECT?

Directors will decide next month on whether to lobby US government for an independent study of the industry

Another attempt to study online gambling before taking further measures against it in the USA may be on the cards after the board of directors of the American Gaming Association meet next month.

On the agenda is whether the AGA should lobby a Democrat dominated US Congress for a full and independent study of the industry and its implications for the American gambling scene.

"The board will consider whether or not to support legislation in the new Congress calling for an independent study of Internet gambling to see if it can be properly regulated, controlled, taxed and licensed here in the United States," said AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf. "My guess is that they are going to say let's go ahead and do it."

The influential Association has a definite interest in the issue, as it represents the land gambling interests in the USA. Its pevious stance was one of opposition to Internet gambling being legalised and regulated, but that appears to have changed in more recent times. Fahrenkopf says that back in April the board decided that the best way forward would be to urge the formation of an independent commission to conduct a full study.

Among the board members discussing the issue next month will be senior executives from major land gaming companies such as MGM Mirage, Wynn Resorts, Harrah's Entertainment and Boyd Gaming.

Previous attempts to persuade US legislators to study online gambling before trying to ban or hamstring the sub-industry have so far not been fruitful. Nevada Representatives Jon Porter and Shelly Berkely launched a bill calling for a bi-partisan congressional committee of enquiry earlier in the year. Both politicians were re-elected in the recent mid-terms, and could make another attempt in a possibly more receptive Democrat-controlled political environment.

The AGA is believed to have its own preferences when it comes to such a study, and Fahrenkopf is on record as saying that the last time the issue was discussed by the Association the consensus leaned toward a study by the National Academy of Sciences to obviate the complications of lobbying activity.

Should a study indicate that online gambling in the United States can be controlled and properly regulated to acceptable standards, the AGA would have firm grounds for a lobbying approach to the appropriate states to see if regulation and legalisation would be supported at individual state level....but that could be some distance ahead, Fahrenkopf has opined.