According to Bill Rutsey, President of the Canadian Gaming Association, there is a good chance that with many of major online gambling sites moving away from the US market, punters will resort to gambling on underground web sites with less than impeccable credentials.
“The new law has turned Internet gamers over to the most unsavoury element on the net – people who are willing to risk prosecution,” said Rutsey.
“Here we have a worldwide industry that has developed. It\’s become a part of our culture and part of the global economy, and overnight the United States has criminalized this ongoing economic force,” commented Lawrence Walters, legal experts with law firm Weston, Garrou, DeWitt and Walters.
However, Walters believes internet gambling is here to stay.
“The U.S. government can pass laws until it is blue in the face and it\’s not going to stop the individual bettor from finding a way to place a bet online. For a little while, it\’s going to be tougher for the U.S. player to find a way to gamble online, but it\’s not going to be impossible,” he said.
John J. Farmer, former Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, said: “In 1999, there were operators taking bets and not paying when people won. What\’ll happen now is this bill will leave the field open to those very people who caused those problems in the first place — the fly-by-night operators.”
Farmer also said he doesn\’t see the online gambling ban standing the test of time.
“I\’d be surprised if this law is still in the books in three or four years time,” he said. “But then again, I\’m surprised that it exists at all.”
888\’s future CEO Gigi Levy said the US demand for online gambling is unstoppable.
“Wherever there is demand there is supply,” he said. “There are 10 million Americans that play online and they\’re not going to go away.”
“I don\’t believe the new regulations will put the internet gambling industry out of business, and, when that becomes clear, I think we can start talking about clarifying the law and regulating the industry,” said Dan Walsh of the lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig.
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