DOUBLE STANDARDS IN U.S. GAMBLING

2 March 2007

Internet gambling has been singled out for banning on moral reasons in the USA, but look what's happening in land gambling....

Uptight US politicians pandering to the religious conservative vote frequently claim that Internet gambling is addictive and morally wrong. That's when they're not denouncing online gambling for everything else from money laundering to raising funds for terrorists, without producing a shred of evidence. Yet land gambling in the Land of the Free seems to have no limits, as a recent report from Associated Press illustrates.

The report is about West Virginia politicians considering the addition of poker, blackjack and other games to its four slot casinos, which could give West Virginia "...a competitive edge of five to 15 years" at a time when its traditional customers are finding more options closer to home.

But it also includes some interesting information on land gambling's spread throughout the United States, revealing that 37 states now have almost 900 land casinos with more on the way.

The politicians in West Virgina have been reluctant to authorise table games at racetracks which are already filled with thousands of slot machines, wary of the word “casino”. But if lawmakers make the psychological leap this year, West Virginia could distinguish itself and cash in on the increasing demand for more 'socially interactive' games.

The long-term demand for table games is uncertain, but with 61 000 new slot machines coming online in Pennsylvania, West Virginia needs every advantage it can get, says Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Slot machines account for about 80 percent of all gambling revenues in the United States, but when everyone has them, “...it’s going to be a lot harder to steal patrons from across borders,” he says.

Joseph Weinert, senior vice president of New Jersey consulting firm Spectrum Gaming Group, says casinos spent most of the 1990s removing labour-intensive table games and replacing them with low-maintenance and highly profitable slots.

But that trend has reversed itself in the last three years, fueled partly by the popularity of televised poker tournaments and the 2003 opening of Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, he says. The Borgata proved that if gamblers are offered an attractive mix of amenities, from spa treatments and restaurants to golf, table games could be more profitable.

Slot machines are now so prevalent across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic that table games can be “difference-makers,” says Weinert. Many young adults who grew up playing computerised and handheld games at home are now “...finding it refreshing and relaxing to be playing a game sitting next to a live person,” he says.

“West Virginia has the opportunity to get a head start of at least four or five years,” Weinert says. “Furthermore, if West Virginia doesn’t have tables and the neighboring states do, it will be at a competitive disadvantage.”

The industry is watching, he says. “This is the next logical big leap for slot casinos.”

The state tracks that stand to benefit are Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center in Nitro, owned by Michigan-based Hartman & Tyner Inc.; Mountaineer Racetrack & Gaming Resort in Chester, owned by MTR Gaming Group Inc.; the Charles Town Races & Slots, owned by Penn National Gaming Inc. of Wyomissing, Pa.; and Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center, a subsidiary of Delaware North Companies of Buffalo, N.Y.

Meanwhile, racetrack owner Hartman & Tyner is pushing for a 2008 ballot measure that would allow slot machines or full-fledged casinos at Michigan horse tracks, but Vice President Daniel Adkins said such measures are unlikely to pass in places like North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio.

Even if slots were approved, he says, table games would take much longer.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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