U.S. Online Poker Players Remain Optimistic

Published: Monday, June 22, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

The American Gaming Association has been split over the online gambling issue in the USA for a long while. Many big time casinos in the states have been saying they want to expand gambling in cyberspace, as a way to extend their brands. Research has shown that Internet gambling sites actually boosted business for land based casinos, mostly in poker rooms. The Web has created a whole generation of new and faceless poker players who want to prove their playing skills at real tables where they can win money and recognition. The split in direction over allowing internet gambling in the states has been festering in the gambling industry to the point where some of the larger casino operators such as Harrahs has actually started an interactive gambling division outside of the jurisdiction of the USA.

Other industry moguls such as Steve Wynn, believes that Internet gambling can't be adequately policed and could embarrass the industry. The American Gaming Association has been forced to take a neutral position on this issue, keeping an arms length distance to maintain a reasonable degree of peace within the association's ranks.

Poker is online gambling's golden goose and Harrah's Entertainment is creating a massive global reach within the poker playing world, surpassing the competition in spades.

Aggressive government actions involving poker sites has sent waves of trepidation throughout the gambling industry. What this action is saying to the average poker player is buyer beware. Yet it is thought that it has not slowed the droves of people willing to put cash on the line to play poker. " I have not heard one person saying, 'I am through with online poker'," an unidentified industry official in Las Vegas was quoted as saying, adding, " It's just making people more militant and bitter against the government." Offshore online gambling firms advertize a great deal in the U.S.A. generating billions of dollars from American players.

Gary Thompson, a Harrah's spokesperson said, "The fact that there are some zealots in the Justice Department that are cognizant of the support for legalizing Internet gambling in the United States and want to try to make a name for themselves before there's some legislation that passes and some rational approach toward this in this country won't deter us,"