Gambling in the News | dramatic shifts in the marketplace

Gambling in the News | dramatic shifts in the marketplace
http://www.gamblingiq.com/newly-proposed-gambling-laws-a-step-in-the-right-direction-sports-memo/

The first decade of the 21st century has seen some dramatic shifts in the sports betting marketplace. In the first few years, the offshore betting industry was in its “Wild West” phase, with sportsbooks rising to prominence, then falling just as rapidly. Many bettors were hurt during a string of highly publicized sportsbook collapses, like Aces Gold and Millennium. Meanwhile, the books continued to aggressively advertise to the US clientele, drawing the ire of federal regulatory agencies.

As the Bush justice department began to shift their focus towards the offshore betting world, the federal government got involved on several levels. Offshore advertising was banned from the airwaves. Sportsbook directors were arrested the day they set foot on US soil. The draconian Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was attached as a rider to a “must pass” Port Security bill by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist after midnight on the final day of the 2006 congressional session.

The passage of that act ushered in a very difficult period for bettors from the USA. Big players like Party Poker and Pinnacle decided to abandon the US market entirely. The biggest issue involved getting money in and out of the offshore books, with banking entities now responsible for policing their own clients. PayPal had already banned gambling transactions and their primary replacement, Neteller, left the US marketplace as well.

The pendulum has clearly started to shift in the other direction since Barack Obama was elected president and the Democrats took over the leadership in both the House and the Senate. Just about every state in the country is facing a significant budget deficit this year, and the federal government faces the biggest deficit in the history of world governments. Suddenly, gaming looks like an increasingly attractive source of revenue to tap.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen two major steps towards an expansion of legalized, regulated gambling – including sports betting -- here in the USA. In Washington DC, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass) has introduced legislation to repeal the UIGEA, specifically carving out a place for poker players in the online gaming world, while making it much easier to send deposits and collect withdrawals from offshore.

Meanwhile, in the state of Delaware, new Governor Jack Markell has pushed aggressively to legalize “Las Vegas-style” sports betting at the local horse racing tracks. Delaware was one of four states that were grandfathered in when the federal government outlawed sports betting in the other 46 states.

Oregon has never been an aggressive player in the market, and they’ve backed off in recent years in order to get NCAA business in the form of bowl games and NCAA tournament sites. Montana has been a non-factor in the sports betting marketplace. Nevada, of course, is the only state with those aforementioned “Las Vegas style” sportsbooks. Delaware has been looking to join Nevada, becoming the only state on the East Coast to offer this service for their residents and visitors.

Thirty-three years ago, Delaware experimented with a sports lottery. The experiment did not fare well. Bettors were required to pick the outcomes of multiple games; a parlay system. But the payouts on those parlay bets were low, mirroring the public’s interest. When the state regulators made a few mistakes setting pointspreads early in the week for the parlay cards, sharp bettors cleaned up, nearly bankrupting the system. The brief experiment was quickly discarded.

Markell had little trouble steering his current bill through the Delaware state legislature. The state house and senate passed the bill into law last week, despite strenuous objections from both NFL and NCAA administrators.