Fahrenkopf: Land Casino Businesses Not to See Decline Due to Online Poker

Fahrenkopf: Land Casino Businesses Not to See Decline Due to Online Poker
The American Gaming Association last week published its State of the States annual report on land gambling, which reveals that the Association has been quietly studying the implications of legalized online poker for some time. And in the report, the outgoing chief of the AGA, Frank Fahrenkopf, noted that next year's annual assessment will debut the inclusion of online poker, and that while it is still uncertain how much that will add to Nevada's 2013 revenue total, it will most likely not take away anything from other gaming revenue streams. "We did studies on Internet poker and if it were legal in Nevada, would it cannibalize land-based casinos. We concluded that looking at the demographic, young men with higher income, most of whom don't go to casinos, it could be viewed as a new profit center," he said, pointing out that to be a serious money-maker online poker has to have lots of players, which certainly is a concern for states with a smaller population like Nevada. In line with this, he noted that legalizing states will need to leave room for compacts on shared player pools with other like-minded states, adding that such agreement would need the approval of a Congress that has not moved on legalization despite several attempts by both political parties. However, as of recent, the Nevada Legislature passed a law that authorizes the governor to negotiate inter-state compacts on online poker, which could trigger a fierce reaction from the federal government if applied.
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