Monday, June 29, 2009

Goldman Sachs Predicts US to Legalize Online Gambling, a $12 Billion Market

As reported by EGamingReview, a Goldman Sachs report predicts that the US will legalize online gambling, creating a $12 billion market. Not that this market doesn't already exist, but now the revenues can be captured (and taxed) legally.

The article focuses on poker and other casino games, and is silent on sports betting. That is where the REALLY large revenue lies. There have been old estimates from law enforcement that up to $1 billion is wagered illegally each week during the NFL season. That doesn't include any other sport, Super Bowl, March Madness, etc. Given the current politics, legalizing online poker and casino games is the easiest first step, not that you should diminish the prospect of legalizing a $12 billion market!

This prediction that online gambling will be legalized isn't that much of a stretch given the Democrats control both houses of Congress and the White House. There are polls and studies that support legalization. A post that discusses a poll supporting legalized online gambling can be found here. A post that reports on the university study recommending legalizing online gambling can be found here. In addition, this blog has other posts regarding this topic.


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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mozambique Improves Gambling Climate

AllAfrica.com is reporting that last week, Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday voted to relax restrictions on gambling. The law will now allow casinos to be built pretty well anywhere in the country, updating the previous law that put certain areas out of bounds.

The new guideline for land-based casinos is that instead of a minimum room requirement (250), the casino must be built in association with one or more hotels with at least a four star ranking. So, align the casinos with quality properties, not just those of a certain size. The older minimum room requirement is actually similar to what still is on the books in Nevada.

Mozambique also legalized online gambling! Here we are in the US, with the UIGEA, which Congress is attempting to overturn, and Mozambique sees the situation clearly, and moves to improve their economy by allowing regulated wagering, even online.

They changed their regulatory structure by transferring the oversight of casino operations to their Tourism Ministry, while the former oversight organization, the Finance Ministry, still oversees the money aspects. That is probably a good move if the Tourism Ministry can ensure the proper licensing of casinos and key employees. In the US, the states usually have a separate department devoted solely to gaming regulation.

There is hope in the US to overturn the UIGEA in the political and the legal arena. There is currently a legal challenge to the UIGEA in the courts, which may hear oral argument in the near future. In Congress, US Congressman Barney Frank's bill to legalize online gambling, HR 2267, is gaining co-sponsors, bringing the total up to 30. The Online Casino Reports article is here.

With the change of presidential administration, and with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, the chances have improved much, but the bill is still in its infancy and has not yet passed any committees.


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Saturday, June 6, 2009

NCAA Not Happy With Montana Sports Wagering?

The NCAA is examining sports gambling in Montana to determine if the NCAA should adopt a policy that would ban any post-season or championship play within the state. A Montana TV station's recent article describes the issue, and the reaction by the locals.

According to the article, the NCAA policy is:

"No session of an NCAA championship may be conducted in a metropolitan area with legal wagering that is based upon the outcome of any event (i.e., high school, college or professional) in a sport in which the NCAA conducts a championship."

I suppose the easiest response from Montana is that since the population of the entire state is approximately 1 million, the concept of metropolitan area doesn't apply since there aren't any. Therefore, Montana isn't in violation of the policy. However, if you define the population small enough, any town can be considered a metro area. According to Census data, there are only 3 cities in the state with populations over 50,000, with the largest, Billings, barely topping 100,000. Compare that to India, where they cite the minimum population to be considered a metropolitan area to be 4 million.

Montana got ratted out when NCAA threatened similar action if Delaware approved sports wagering. According to an ESPN article, a NCAA spokesman stated that the University of Montana should not have been allowed to host playoff games last season due to an "administrative oversight." That is possible since the sports betting game in question, Montana Sports Action, was inaugurated in the fall of 2008. For those interested in Montana Sports Action, you can review several posts in this blog on that game.

What is a bit puzzling is how long it takes the NCAA to recognize administrative oversights. For example, how could the NCAA miss a bowl game that is played in Nevada, a state that until recently had a de facto monopoly on legal sports wagering? Perhaps the name of the bowl game was vague and NCAA officials never attended a game in person? How could the NCAA miss a bowl game called the Las Vegas Bowl, played in Las Vegas at the football stadium of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas? Perhaps the NCAA doesn't consider Las Vegas to be a metropolitan area or maybe that the NCAA doesn't know that legal sports betting occurs in Nevada? Of course, sports betting in Nevada has only been around since the 1940s, so perhaps it's too recent of an event for the NCAA to be aware.

Actually the policy is targeted at championship play, rather than general post-season play, so certain bowl games could get a pass. However, how can the NCAA be ignorant of the Western Athletic Conference routinely hosting championship play in Nevada? Approximately in the last year, women's soccer, basketball and golf all had their championships hosted in Nevada. Given the NCAA policy, maybe you can excuse soccer, but does Nevada allow bets on golf and basketball? I think yes.

If wagering on outcomes is the issue, Montana has a good story, whereas Delaware and Nevada do not. Fantasy sports, depending on the scoring methodology, generally is not tied to the outcome of an actual game.

Montana likely walks on this but the NCAA will go through the motions (but perhaps with a warning not to expand sports gambling to include betting on games). If the NCAA does place a ban on Delaware, they may have to do the same to Nevada. My guess is that they will let all of this go away and pretend it doesn't exist.


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