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There’s Hope For Louisiana’s Gambling Future, If It Ever Gets Out Of The Past

A Louisiana Senator has introduced a bill seeking to legalize online gambling in the state’s current legislative session. But don’t expect a state still digging itself out of the past when it comes to gambling to embrace the future anytime soon by adopting it.

The legislation won’t exactly make online gambling legal. It just allows parishes across the state to put an online gaming referendum on the ballot. Even then, if the majority of parishes do so, and Louisiana voters get behind the idea, laws authorizing online gambling in the state won’t become effective until January 2020.

The truth is, Louisiana needs the time. Mostly because it still has a long way to go before it gets anywhere near modern when it comes to gambling altogether.

The good news is, it appears to be ready to start working its way towards that point.

Mississippi Riverboat casinos

Legal casino gambling came to Louisiana in 1991. Like a number of other states along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, including Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Missouri, casino gambling came in the form of Riverboat Casinos.

Forcing the gambling industry onto 19th century-style paddle steamers cruising up and down the Mississippi was meant to evoke images of Mark Twain and a fondly remembered bygone era in the South. It was also a way of limiting the size and scope of the industry to something more manageable than widespread legal casinos.

Unfortunately, it never really worked out the way anyone intended.

The floating casinos quickly discovered business went South every time the boats set sail. First, they started coming up with every excuse they could to stay in port.

Then, when it became clear the boats weren’t too keen on leaving the docks and were doing everything they could to skirt around the laws forcing them to, legislators ditched the sailing requirements.

Louisiana also saw fit to authorize the opening of a single land-based casino in New Orleans. Plus, three native-run land-based casinos opened up across the state.

None of the 15 riverboat casinos still operational in the state leave the dock anymore. Requirements, including those ensuring gambling takes place on the water and the boats are fit for cruising, are just formalities. Formalities that serve only to keep Louisiana gambling stuck in the past.

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The future of Louisiana gambling

Alongside online gambling legislation, Louisiana lawmakers are also considering a bill seeking to change all that during this legislative session.

The bill authorizes the casinos to build modern gaming facilities on land within 1,200 feet of the boats. It will still limit the industry’s size and scope. However, those pointless water-based requirements will end. Things like having an operational paddle-wheel on a boat that’s clearly are never going anywhere.

Lawmakers will also be considering easing the restrictions on truck stops that operate video poker rooms across the state. Plus, the four racetracks in Louisiana that have slots are asking lawmakers to give them the right to offer table games and video poker.

Additionally, Harrah’s Casino, that New Orleans land-based casino mentioned previously, wants to extend the contract giving it a monopoly on land-based casino operations. It’s also asking for permission to build a second hotel and open up a food court.

Taking Louisiana from the past into gambling’s future won’t be easy. These are all contentious propositions that will be debated at length. Issues that’ll need to be dealt with long before online gambling is seriously considered.

There is hope for online gambling in Louisiana’s future. Just not now, as it has to get out of the past first.

The post There’s Hope For Louisiana’s Gambling Future, If It Ever Gets Out Of The Past appeared first on Play USA.

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PA Lawmakers To Regulators: Limiting Online Gambling ‘Skins’ Was Never Their Intent

Two prominent Pennsylvania lawmakers are urging the PA Gaming Control Board to resist calls to limit the number of online gambling websites (or “skins”) a licensed operator can launch.

That’s according to a letter sent on March 22, first reported by Chris Krafcik of GamblingCompliance.

The state is looking to start the online gambling license process next month and launch iGaming later this year. The issue of skins, meanwhile, remains unresolved.

No limits on online gambling skins?

The two lawmakers — Reps. Rosita Youngblood and Jason Ortitay — were instrumental in crafting the 2017 gaming law PA enacted, particularly the online gaming component.

“As the prime sponsor of the law, I am compelled to advise you that there was never an intent to limit the number of skins,” the letter states. “To the contrary, the legislation I drafted specifically contemplates ‘skins’ in the context of plural and doesn’t use the word in its singular context.”

The letter goes on to say:

“I urge you to consider the notion that limiting skins would decrease competition and protect only the brands of a few interests. Instead, we should look to increase competition, increase tax revenue and improve the quality of interactive gaming products in Pennsylvania, while at the same time improving customer experience by allowing for multiple skins per license.”

[…]

“The Board should not limit the numbers of skins, nor place conditions on how access to the skins occurs. This will increase revenue for the Commonwealth at a pivotal time, instead of limiting competition or placing an undue burden on how a patron obtains access to a skin.”

Youngblood and Ortitay also caution that not only would a restriction on skins cost the state revenue, but since it would go against the intent of the legislation, “limiting the number of skins in any regard would be an unconstitutional usurpation of the specific powers and authority of the legislative branch of Pennsylvania government.”

Why is this an issue

As Online Poker Report has reported, at least two Pennsylvania casino operators — Parx and Hollywood Penn National — have been actively lobbying the PGCB to limit each online operator to a single skin.

Meanwhile, industry groups and New Jersey online casino operators have pushed back against Parx’s and Penn National’s calls for a strict limit on skins.

In a letter sent to the PGCB, the pro-online gaming lobby group iDEA Growth explained that limiting skins would have multiple negative implications on the yet-to-be-launched industry.

  • The firsthand experience in New Jersey shows that the capability to offer multiple skins has grown the market and maximized revenue.
  • The restriction of skins is anti-competitive and would provide the consumer with an inferior product and user experience.
  • The allowance of multiple skins leads to more competition and innovation among stakeholders.

The post PA Lawmakers To Regulators: Limiting Online Gambling ‘Skins’ Was Never Their Intent appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.

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Online Poker Struggles To Gain A Foothold In The Legal New Jersey Market

After a sluggish start, the New Jersey online casino industry has turned into a revenue-generating machine. From 2014 to 2017 revenue has doubled, from $123 million to $246 million.

The sustained growth has been nothing short of remarkable, with year-over-year growth every single month, and with New Jersey online casinos tallying nearly a quarter of billion dollars in gross gaming revenue in 2017, and on pace for even more in 2018.

But not everything is hunky dory. Growth on the casino side of the ledger has masked the struggles of online poker.

The difference between the two couldn’t be more striking.

Other than seasonal trends, online casino revenue has been steadily rising as the market continues to mature.

On the other hand, online poker emerged fully mature and has been deteriorating ever since.

The five best months in New Jersey online poker history were its first five months:

  • December 2013: $2,884,917
  • January 2014: $3,442,271
  • February 2014: $3,109,203
  • March 2014: $3,210,663
  • April 2014: $2,591,839

And aside from a short burst following the entry of PokerStars in the Spring of 2016, online poker has been unable to crack the $2.5 million mark.

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Making sense of it all

There is a logical explanation for online poker’s strong early numbers and subsequent decline.

On April 15, 2011, US online poker players had the rug yanked out from underneath them. That was the day (dubbed Black Friday in the poker world) the US government shutdown the three largest US-facing online poker operators, leaving poker players with a ragtag group of unregulated offshore sites to choose from.

When New Jersey launched its legal online poker sites in November 2013 these players were still engaged and waiting for the return of online poker.

Simply put, online poker players were better aware of legal online gaming coming to New Jersey than potential online casino customers.

However, these players were summarily disappointed with the new legal sites. Players complained about inferior products, technical glitches, new regulatory hoops they had to jump through, and most of all, a lack of liquidity.

They were expecting pre-Black Friday online poker with tens of thousands of players and million-dollar Sunday tournaments. What they got was hundreds of players and $50,000 Sunday tournaments.

Needless to say, online poker quickly fizzled out in New Jersey.

PokerStars offered the early dropouts a glimmer of hope when it launched in the Spring of 2016, but with the liquidity constraints still in place it wasn’t long before the players that thought PokerStars would be different than other New Jersey operators moved on.

That said, the early numbers and the short PokerStars’ surge signal that there are more online poker players in the market.

Nevada will help

Online poker’s struggles can be traced back to one thing: liquidity, or a lack thereof.

New Jersey is expected to start pooling online poker players with Nevada and Delaware before the World Series of Poker begins in a couple months.

Joining the interstate online poker pool will help, but don’t expect miracles. Online poker traffic in Nevada traffic is less than New Jersey, and Delaware only brings a negligible number of online poker players to the table.

Furthermore, WSOP.com Nevada (WSOP.com is the only operator active in all three states) is chock full of solid players. That means new players drawn to the site by the increased traffic will find tough games, which will lead to a high attrition rate.

Interstate pooling with Nevada and Delaware should help bring monthly online poker revenue in New Jersey back over the $2 million mark, but not much higher.

Pennsylvania will help more

New Jersey won’t start to reach its online poker potential until Pennsylvania pools its online poker players with the three other states.

Here’s why:

  • Pennsylvania’s population is equal to Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey combined.
  • Pennsylvania will have a better mix of casual and serious players.
  • With Pennsylvania, legal US poker sites will boast similar traffic numbers as the remaining offshore operators. That could be tipping point that brings many of the players still playing on unregulated sites into the legal market.

The post Online Poker Struggles To Gain A Foothold In The Legal New Jersey Market appeared first on .

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Poker Industry PRO: Partypoker’s Ambitious Stretches to Satellites with $700K in Weekly Guarantees

Aggressive schedule of daily satellites aims to send over 2000 lower stakes players into prestigious Powerfest events each week.

Online poker operator partypoker has announced an ambitious new schedule of online satellites, guaranteeing almost $700,000 in tickets to its Power Series each week.

The operator recently overhauled its weekly schedule, guaranteeing $10 million in prizes each week—2.5 times larger than the previous weekly schedule—across a most consistent, focused and predictable schedule.

Read the full article on pokerfuse →

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Poker Industry PRO: Business Monitor: Stars Group Q4 and FY 2017

 

The Stars Group reported record full year revenues of $1.3 billion in 2017, boasting of growth across all major products.

In online poker, revenue returned to growth, hitting $877 million for the year, up 4% on 2016. A strong Q3 was followed by an equally impressive Q4: With revenue of $234.4 million, Q4 was its highest in 12 quarters and represents growth of 8% year-over-year.

Read the full article on pokerfuse →