When you think of casinos in the US, normally you think of the centers like Las Vegas and Atlantic City. These are cities that have built much of their industries on gambling and tourism. Although they are the biggest and most well known, now things are changing in the world of gambling. In fact, almost every state these days is toying with bringing gambling laws in. They see the huge tax-revenue potential with gaming and want a cut. The recession left many states with few ways of managing financially and the deficits are huge. Because of this, it is going to take a few months for things to regulate and for states to find additional funding options. One problem is where are the funds going to come from?

The quick answer is to implement gambling—legally and regulated— into the state. Pennsylvania, for example, has just approved slots parlors. They are hoping that slots will bring in the millions of dollars needed to overcome state deficits in funding. When Las Vegas released its numbers last year it was surprising to find out that slots were the biggest and most reliable money-maker of all the games available. While high-rollers slowed down on the large-wager tables, gamblers continued to go into casinos to play the slots. Because of this research casinos throughout the country are trying to use slots as a money generating activity. They are hoping the millions expected will be channeled into the economy and help to bring it back from the recession. Though the recession is over, the financial aftermath is still proving to be difficult to overcome.

Right now research is showing that some form of gambling is legal in forty-eight of the fifty states. That is a huge number and that means that a wide range of legislators are hoping to capitalize on slots gaming. Only time will tell how reliable it is, but for now it seems like it is going to be a sure-fire way to bulk up state coffers. Without gambling, many legislators are arguing that there are few other avenues of finding the millions needed to handle the budgets.

A new bill was approved in the Polish Parliament recently. The country has been under fire as of late due to a wide range of gambling problems that have arisen. They have involved high-ranking officials in the country and it has done more than a little to embarrass legislators. The whole flub was labeled as “Blackjack-gate” and it will be a long time before officials will be forgiven for the problems that occurred. Once the scandal was dealt with, Prime Minister Tusk started an immediate push for stricter laws when it comes to gaming in the country.

The main repercussion of stricter rulings is that slot machines are going to be stationed only in approved areas. Prior to the new laws, the machines were legal to be set up in bars, service stations, malls and cafes in the country. Now, only licensed casinos will be able to have the machines and legally operate them. To implement the new changes, there may be some problems however. Namely, it may take some time to reverse the former more lax rules about slot machine gambling. It is estimated that there are more than 50,000 slot machines that will have to be removed. This could prove to be a hefty task for legislators to carry out due to the widespread nature of the locations that are having gambling machines in operations. It may take months for all the machines to be removed and that doesn’t mean that there won’t still remain an underground number of machines that are being operated. One thing other countries have learned is that gambling is something that if banned, people will find illegal ways of carrying it out. When a ban happens with gambling, there has to be some police force strictly tasked with regulating the changes and monitoring them over time. Poland can expect more underground gambling to ensue. The new rules also ban online gambling within the state. These changes may be hard to implement, but time will tell what legislators will have to do to ensure the laws are followed. It will take time and money, along with vigilant attention to make sure Poland does not fall into illegal gambling.

Here they go again—slots are taking the forefront in debate in yet another state. Now it is Maine where gambling is being debated. A few short years ago the state believed that it could ban slot machine gambling altogether. It seemed like a cure all in that without legalized gambling, there would be no further problems to overcome. Unfortunately, the state experienced what many other states did: if people want to gamble, they will find placed to do it—either legally or illegally. The 2007 objective of Maine’s legislators to ban gambling fell short drastically. That is proven with the prevalence of slot machine gambling in 2010 throughout the state. There are still opponents though. The organization “No Slots for Me!” is still pining for its chance to be heard by legislators. The group has been instrumental in decrying gambling. So far it is still making a push to put the slot machine issue on the ballot in the November 2010 vote. Thus far the group has over 55,000 signatures from residents of the state who don’t want gambling. A study has shown that 55,000 makes up about10% of the gubernatorial vote. Though that may seem like a sliver of the population, in reality it is a good chunk of the voting public. In addition, consider the amount of people who don’t vote at all and it could considerably turn a candidate for the position of governor to an anti-gambling stance.

So far the state of Maine is debating out the issue through advertising and promotions. The sides are determined to have their positions heard and are hoping the right legislators hear their calls. If the “No Slots for Me!” initiative can gain momentum it just may be a true entity to reckon with coming November. There are still legislators who believe that gambling would be a bad move for the state and believe that without some hard-hitting opposition, it could be adopted. They believe it would inevitably bring an increase in crime, corruption, money laundering and overall addictions. Only time will tell how far this issue goes in the state of Maine, but it is surely not an issue that is going to die anytime soon without a definitive solution being introduced in coming months.

There is a new proposal in Indiana and it’s set to introduce more slot machine gaming to the state. Since 2007 the state has debated over gambling and using it to bring in money. Now, legislators are pushing for more slot machines to be placed in bars, restaurants and fraternal organization lodges.  An old study by the Indiana Licensed Beverage Association showed that if slots and video poker are allowed, by putting 3,500 machines in the state there would be an increase of $300 million in tax-revenue dollars. That is a huge amount and would do a lot to quell the overwhelming budget problems the state is currently under.

Add to the mix the fact that there is a wide range of illegal operations when it comes to gambling going on. The US learned a difficult lesson with gambling and that is that Americans are going to do it—whether it is legal or not. Back in 2006 the UIGEA was introduced and the hope was to thwart online gambling. All the move did though was to push US residents to gamble at offshore casinos. In the end, it channeled billions of dollars out of the country.  US legislators should remember that well. If states are going to ban slot machines, most likely people will just start using underground and illegal machines to wager with. It isn’t as simple as taking the offending problem away anymore. People have many outlets to get what they want and do what they want to do.

Indiana should remember well what happened back in 2009. The state created an Indiana Excise Police, which was a group tasked with eliminating the gambling industry. Their job was to keep things under wraps but the state’s new organization failed to make good their task. In the end, illegal gambling continued to grow in the market and created an even bigger problem for policing organizations. There are intricate underground groups that manage gambling and bring it to the public. It is more difficult to uncover these groups due to their covert dealings. It will take time for Indiana to figure out a decent law, but one thing the state cannot do is ban gambling. It didn’t work in 2006 and it didn’t work in 2009. That means that future efforts most likely won’t work either.

Poland has been through a lot when it comes to slots gambling. Prime Minister Donald Tusk cleaned house recently in an effort to move forward from the gambling scandal that took over the country. Three high-ranking government officials submitted their resignation and Tusk dismissed the head of the anticorruption agency along with them. The anticorruption investigation, with a code name of Operation Blackjack, has been in the headlines for quite a while this past year. The Central Anticorruption Bureau alleged that public officials were using their influence to reduce the burden of new gambling taxes on casinos in the country. The scandal was a huge setback for the Prime Minister because he is poised on running for president next year against Lech Kaczynski. Mr. Tusk said, “Recent events related to the gambling act raise justified doubts among Poles. For the government to work in an atmosphere of trust and impartiality, my colleagues and I want to do everything to convince Poles, but also our opponents, about our impartiality.”

Tusk is working hard to sort out the issue within the country. Under the new gaming law, slot machines and other small-wagering machines will be systematically phased out of the industry. The Prime Minister is looking to increase the taxes imposed on the industry and “banning highly addictive examples of gaming that threaten young individuals and children.” The law will ban gambling for people under 18 years of age and it will introduce a six-year state concessions for casino facilities with the limit of one facility per district with a maximum population of up to 650,000. Each casino will be limited also to just 70 individual casino gaming tables and machines combined.

The new law also institutes a higher gaming tax and introduces new taxes to the market. Casinos will have to pass all ownership changes to the ministry of finance in the country. The new gaming law was proposed after the aforementioned scandal wreaked havoc on the country due to sullying the name of the government and the Prime Minister. He moved quickly to get rid of the offenders, but new polls have shown that he has lost some voter loyalty as a result.

Poland is a country that has wrestled with the issue of gambling as of late. The country has been in a lot of trouble due to politicians falling to gambling bribes and corruption. President Lech Kaczynski still gave approval at the end of November for laws restricting gaming to casinos and to remove slot machines from clubs, arcades, shops, cafes and service stations across Poland. Formerly slot machines were allowed in various business establishments and used to bring in additional funds to various businesses. Presidential Aide Wladyslaw Stasiak said that President Kaczynski requested the constitutional court of Poland to decide whether the hastily approved law was in line with the state constitution.

Under the new gaming law, slot machines are to be phased out of the business world. It is a difficult decision because it cuts back on businesses’ revenues considerably. Poland’s Liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government supported the hard line gaming legislation, has said that it is aimed at increasing the taxes imposed on the industry and limiting and if possible, banning highly addictive examples of gaming that threatens young individuals including children. This is an argument that has come up in various jurisdictions. Many believe that the surge of slot machine gambling will put children at risk and bring more crime to the area. They believe that corruption and crime go hand in hand with gambling and ok-ing slot machines is one step away from having to deal with more troublesome problems like addiction, corruption and money laundering.

The new Polish law bans gambling for people under eighteen years old. It also introduces strict six-year state concessions for casino facilities with the limit of one facility per district with a population of up to 650,000. Casino establishments will be limited to operating seventy individual casino gaming tables and gaming machines. The law also imposes higher gaming taxes as well as new taxes for the market. Casino facilities will also have to pass all ownership changes to the ministry of finance in Poland. The new gaming law was proposed after Prime Minister Tusk was forced to get rid of several ministers and political allies over allegations of influence peddling in the cabinet regarding the gaming proposal. The state of gambling in the country is still in the planning stages, but this new law is a step in the right direction for the country.

In 2006 the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was brought into legislation. The point of the law was to thwart illegal gambling online to protect consumers. Although this was its intention, the law had some other results. The UIGEA ended up targeting financial institutions. They were tasked with the overwhelming task of flagging and denying any transactions that were affiliated with online gambling. Banks didn’t like the change because it costs money for them to alter their procedures to account for the new checks. In the end, the UIGEA ended up creating a lot of problems because other forms of gambling that were meant to be legal, like lotteries and sports betting, were thrown into the mix and banks seized those funds too.

When it comes to the online casino world, they were equally as thrown by the UIGEA rule. Many chose to leave the market. For example, Party Gaming issued a statement that read, “The Board of Party Gaming has determined that if the President signs the Act into law, the Company will suspend all real money gaming business with US residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation.”  

Many online casinos were scared and decided to alienate the US market altogether as a way to avoid breaking any laws in the world of online gambling. A lot of companies were as conservative as Party Gaming. When companies left the US market, online gamblers were left with no choice but to move to offshore gambling companies. The problem is that they then channeled billions of US dollars out of the country. One legislator said, “Every day the US does not put laws in act to accept online slots and gambling, is another day the country is losing millions of dollars in potential revenue.”  With the numbers when it comes to gambling as high as they are, it’s a difficult to pass up the huge revenues. In particular because of the huge US deficit, it’s imperative that more legislation is put into place to legalize and regulate online gambling.

In October of 2006 the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was passed. It did not define gambling as illegal. In fact, it didn’t really touch the topic of gambling at all. It actually focused more on stopping deposits and withdrawals for online gambling transactions. It focused on financial institutions and made them responsible for flagging and denying transactions that were coming from gambling websites. 

Over the years the UIGEA has had limited success in achieving its goals. Banks have never been supportive of the law because it left the responsibility of checking each transaction with them. They also were held responsible if any transactions got past their system of checking. This led to huge fines and federal issues. It’s no wonder banks had a hard time with the UIGEA and are more than excited to hear about some of the changes the laws are going through.

Part of the problem with the UIGEA is that although it initially was thought to be instituted to “protect family values” in reality it had other outcomes.  In particular, it forced some of the best and most reputable online casinos from the US to pull out of the country.  They wanted to avoid conflict with the US government and the federal government and felt the most viable solution was to leave operations in the country completely. Unfortunately the repercussion for good online casinos leaving was the door opening for less than scrupulous casinos coming into the market to take over the US market. These newer online casinos offer huge bonuses, easy deposits, and tons of gimmicks that rarely payout.  They also are notorious for offering huge jackpots—until players win them. Then the huge jackpot is not paid out due to some “fine print” rule. 

Another negative repercussion of the UIGEA happened in 2008. November of that year MicroGaming, one of the biggest online software providers to online casinos, made a change. They allowed their licensees to continue servicing existing USA residents with accounts, but they stopped allowing them to accept new registrations from US players.  Again, this put players in a difficult situation because suddenly they had to be twice as careful when choosing an online slots or gambling casino.

Although the UIGEA set out to protect players from dangerous online activities, it instead opened the door for some huge issues for online slots players and online gamblers. Hopefully with new amendments to the UIGEA on the table, some will be adopted and truly be able to protect citizens.

The European Court of Justice ruled that any country in the EU can restrict private players from internet slots and gambling if the rationale was to “safeguard the interests of the citizens.”  The parties involved in the dispute were BWin.com and Portuguese gambling monopoly. The debate began over Bwin.com’s sponsorship of the Portuguese soccer club Liga.  The BWin.com logo was placed on the soccer club’s website and the players’ uniforms. The state charity that possessed the rights to online betting and lottery gambling believed this to be a violation of their territorial property. The monopoly in turn fined Liga and BWin.com.

Previously, the European Court of Justice mandated that free trade could be restricted by a state if its purpose was to protect the public.  This rule was applicable in the case of BWin.com and the Portuguese because the Court deemed online gambling to involve a large risk of potential criminal activity or fraud within the society.  The winnings of players was substantial, therefore the likelihood of unscrupulous activities were heightened. 

In a press release BWin.com stated, “It is difficult for us to understand the rationale that crime is more difficult off-line than online.” The company affirmed their position that their consumer protection and fraud prevention programs were one of the best in the industry and held up well to any competitors’ programs. The Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association, or EGBA, stated, “Several jurisdictions in the EU already prove that it is possible to guarantee a high level of consumer protection and have a well regulated and competitive online gaming market at the same time.”

Despite the decision, BWin.com believes that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that online slots and online gambling are more susceptible to fraud. They issued a statement that read in part, “This judgment denigrates the online gambling industry.” The online slots industry does have some concern that the European Commission’s decision may force them to change their online policies for gambling in Europe. However, Remote Gaming Association CEO Clive Hawkswood stated, that he believes that though the court made “careless and inflammatory comments” in the ruling, nothing in it should stop the EC from dealing with future improprieties in online slots and gambling.

The European Commission, or EU, is taking a stand against countries against countries that are trying to introduce legislation on online gambling and slots play.  There are many European countries in the position of moving to legalizing gambling as a way of bringing in much-needed revenues. The online gambling market is a billion-dollar one and deficits are high globally.  With the possibility of legalizing and regulating online gambling and slots play, many countries see a way to solve their financial problems and balance their budgets.

Denmark is a country that is having some problems introducing legislations to its country. The EU is already accusing the country of having a “protectionist online gambling policy.” Dansk Spil is the name of the online gambling company that the EC was accusing of having a monopoly. They believed that the company was being given permission to limit online gambling and slots to their company.  It was not allowing fair competition for other online gambling casino and online slots operators to enter the market.

In response, Denmark revisited its legislation and has recrafted rules for online gambling and slots legalization. The country has new laws that permit other operators to compete against Dansk Spill in the market.  Ladbrokes has been one of the most vocal supporters of the new regulations and the company has made its own moves to seek licensing in Denmark once the protocols were laid out on how to do so. Lasse Dilschmann, CEO of Ladbrokes Scandinavia, stated, “While the Swedish Government has chosen to put forth arguments for a gambling market inconsistent with the demands of consumers, Denmark now chooses another way.”

That is good news for Ladbrokes and other online casinos that are looking to come into the country.  Although it may take some time for the new rules to be passed because the EU still has to review new legislation, it is expected that everything will go according to plan. The EU has not yet said when it will review the new proposed laws or when a decision will be made but analysts are hopeful that the new bills will pass with relative ease.