Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Dow Jones Newswire reports that against a background of full hotels and an influx of gambling industry bosses, the absence of online gambling will be noticed at the Global Gaming Expo this week. Commenting on the absence of online gambling at the AGA conference, Dow Jones says that it is one source of possible growth that the big names had been eyeing, but that it seems to have crapped out, at least for the foreseeable future. It remarks that many top industry leaders, among them MGM Mirage's Terry Lanni, had been agitating to get Internet wagering legalised and regulated so they could get their share of the billions of dollars that were going offshore in the industry due to the position taken by US legislation. "Executives at those [online gambling] companies....may be sparse on the ground at this week's festivities. The recent arrest of former BetonSports.com Chief Executive David Carruthers as he was changing planes in Dallas has made most, if not all of them, unwilling to visit the United States under current circumstances," the article points out. While the Democratic takeover of Congress has raised some optimism that there might be progress in easing the ban, at least one e-gambling expert doesn't think so, adds the report, going on to quote gambling law expert Anthony Cabot who opines: "Anytime you have anti-gambling legislation passed, it is very difficult for a legislator to seek a repeal." The public-relations price for being tagged as pro-gambling is just too high, he continued: "Even the person who introduced the bill [to legalise gambling in Nevada] got voted out of office."

He believes that one immediate consequence will be "far less participation in land-based poker tournaments, since the majority of the players come from online tournaments. The World Series of Poker will be interesting to watch next year."

The new law and Carruthers' arrest are also muting turnout at the convention, although a representative for the American Gaming Association was quick to point out that overall exhibitor and visitation levels are still expected to be higher than last year.

"We've had about five companies out of 15 drop out on the exhibitor side, but our [Internet] pavilion is still robust," said spokeswoman Holly Thomsen. "On the attendee side, it's hard to gauge the impact. ... We're sure there will be some drop-off as well based on what's going on."

She noted that the trade show has never allowed actual e-gaming companies to exhibit; their suppliers were permitted.