SuperBook’s Blog

Gambling in the United States

In the United States, gambling has had a very rocky existence, sometimes being viewed as a positive and negative thing to do. As public opinion has evolved, so too has the view of gambling.

Back in the late 19th century, individual gambling was completely banned as the most common form of gambling were public lotteries. Then, in the 1920’s, public sentiment changed and gambling made a bit of a comeback. One event seemed to change the public perception. The stock market crash in 1929 made people believe that regulated legalized gambling could go a long way to stimulate the economy and in 1931 gambling was finally fully legalized in the state of Nevada. Las Vegas become a major gambling hotspot and American gamblers had a place where they could enjoy themselves.

The next major shift occurred in the 1970’s when riverboat and Indian reservation casinos were opened and provided some form of legal gambling in all states except two. This event was so huge that gambling revenues dwarfed those of movie tickets, music albums, theme parks and video games combined.

The Internet - Gambling With New Technology

Then a truly huge, cultural changing event occurred. In the mid 1990’s the internet was created and the World Wide Web changed the landscape of the gambling world forever. With this new technology, people could gamble in the comfort of their own home, anytime they wanted.

The first online casino, Intercasino, offered 18 different games and online access to the National Indian Lottery. In 1997, the online gambling industry raked in over $1 billion in revenues, with $600 million from the U.S. alone. By 2001, these revenues tripled to more than $3 billion worldwide, and by 2004 it almost tripled again with $8.2 billion. In 2006, though it’s still too early to say for sure, revenues were expected to exceed $17 billion. Original estimates predicted the industry to take in over $25 billion per year by 2010 but the new US anti-gaming law would seem to stymie that figure. However, in those places where gambling is still legal, we expect there to be steady growth.

Present and Future

Back in 2003, an organization called eCOGRA (eCommerce and online gaming regulation and assurance) was founded in order to provide a safe environment for gamblers to play in. This organization came about due to the rapid growth of this global industry. As the industry continued to spread into country after country, it became clear that there was a real need for a set system of rules and standards. Thus, eCogra was formed with the purpose of uniting all gambling sites and forcing adherence to those guidelines. Now, in 2007, eCogra is responsible for regulating, monitoring and certifying over 100 online gambling sites.

Something else happened in 2003 which changed the face of online gambling as we know it. This was the year that an unknown internet poker player, an accountant by day, named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker main event. He won his buy in to the event by winning a $40 online tournament. He turned that $40 investment into a $4 million windfall. With that, the poker boom was officially underway. All across the nation, there were Moneymaker wanna-bees looking to win big and get to the main event. Online poker became an accepted household name and had appeal to people from all walks of life. Poker broadcasts on television began popping up everywhere and people began to look at this as a sport and not a shady underground activity.

There were finally good times all around for gamblers everywhere. Unfortunately, this Utopia was short lived as almost immediately, the US government had plans in the works to make gambling online just about impossible for their residents. Then on September 30 2006, the music stopped as the United States Congress passed a bill that made it illegal for banks and credit cards companies to process payments from U.S. residents to online gambling companies. The bill was attached at the last minute to a completely different bill regarding ports security. The bill later became law when President Bush signed it on October 13.

While the online gambling industry will probably survive the recent setback, it is undeniable that the industry has run into difficulty, since the U.S. provides half of the income for some companies and much more than that to others. This is a critical hour and an interesting time for the online gambling industry. It remains to be seen if it will get back on its feet, perhaps stronger than ever, or will it slowly be reduced to a few big companies that will be strong enough to withstand the recent blow.

We will continue this discussion next week. We want to hear from you. How do you feel about this and how have these acts by Congress impacted your lives? Has it altered the way you operate or have you become even more determined to live your life as you see fit? Let’s get the dialogue going as alone we are weak but united, we are stronger.

Over the past year, online gambling has been a big newsmaker. It seems anytime you look up, something is being said about the industry and the cloud of uncertainty which surrounds it. You see politicians debating it, regular citizens weighing in and you see people line up on both sides of the fence. There is no arguing the fact that online gambling is an enormous money maker with customers and websites alike all over the world. There are sites devoted to online poker, others with sports betting some both, while others offer lottery type games as well as horse and dog racing. There are even websites which feature virtual horseracing in which people can wager on fake horses on their computer screens. There is something for everyone online and millions of people make use of these sites. These sites didn’t just appear out of thin air. Just like gambling itself, the online gambling world has evolved over the years and over the next few weeks, I’m going to start an open dialogue which discusses this history as well as the challenges faced by the industry today and its future prospects.

Gambling has been a part of human culture for thousands of years and will probably be around forever. There is something about human nature that pushes people to gamble. People can’t help but want to take risks and in doing so in the hopes of winning big. Throughout human history, gambling has taken on many different forms. People would make wagers on who would win a particular war or which tribe members could hunt for the most food.

As society became more advanced and sophisticated, so did the methods and means used to gamble. Somewhere along the way, someone invented dice and other primitive games. These developments gave man a needed outlet for risk taking in their daily lives which didn’t involve putting oneself in danger. Then cards were developed along with gambling on sporting events such as chariot racing. And eventually these gave way to organized sports betting and casino style games such as roulette.

So what did all of these activities have in common? Each and every one of these activities were conducted in a specific place where all of the participants could see and hear each other. Though I’m not sure where the first one was, casinos were created and they quickly became the classy place people could meet and gamble together at. They were glamorous and provided its customers with a comfortable and exciting atmosphere to gamble and take financial risks.

With increasing technology and the dawn of the internet, everything changed and the way we viewed gambling would be changed forever. The internet is the one invention that has done the most to alter our daily lives. It has changed the way we shop, read periodicals, find out about the weather etc. It has touched every aspect of our lives. Gambling, of course, is no exception. From day 1, online gambling caught on like fire and is today one of the most prosperous online industries in the world. With billions of dollars in revenue each year and projections that continue skyward, it is obvious to anyone and everyone and online gambling is here and its here to stay.

It is true that the online gambling industry has lately run into a major obstacle with the recent anti-gambling law in the United States, but if history teaches us anything about gambling, it’s that it always survives and it is never contained for long.

The earliest origins of online gambling can be traced back to 1994. The island of Antigua passed a law that made it legal to preside over the issuance of gambling licenses. As the pioneer in this sense, it paved the way for online gambling to begin operations and today, there are many companies based there in order to use their license.

Shortly thereafter, a company based in Isle of Man, Microgaming, created and developed the first fully operational online casino software. So now that the casino shell was created, the next logical step was for a company to create viable internet transaction software. Cryptologic, an online security software company answered the call and they created the software which many of today’s current online gaming sites still use today. The union of these two companies’ ideas led to the launching of Intercasino, the first online casino in 1995.

Things weren’t exactly smooth sailing from the beginning. There were many legal hurdles and obstacles to overcome. From a moral standpoint alone, there were many in positions of authority that opposed online gambling. Specifically, a congressman by the name of Jon Kyl of Arizona tried on several occasions to prevent US citizens from gambling online. He did so primarily by conducting anti-gambling campaigns. These acts laid the groundwork for the big actions of 2006 by the US government.

We want to hear from you. How do you feel about this and how have these acts by Congress impacted your lives? Has it altered the way you operate or have you become even more determined to live your life as you see fit? Let’s get the dialogue going as alone we are weak, but united we are stronger.