Top Gambling News: Angry Reaction to Adelson Online Gambling Stance

These are the top gambling news stories here at Gambling911.com Thursday June 20, 2013 (Afternoon Eastern Standard Time). Follow us on Twitter here.

*Poker Players Express Outrage at Sheldon Adelson Opinion Piece on Legalized Internet Poker in US – As would be expected, the poker playing community came out en masse against Sands of Las Vegas chairman Sheldon Adelson’s call to expressly prohibit legalized online gambling at the federal level, thus preventing individual states like Nevada and New Jersey from ever offering the activity. 

Adelson offered his assessment as part of an opinion piece on Forbes.com.  He is one of the lone voices of dissent these days.

One member of the popular TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum took issue with Adelson’s stance regarding the possible “societal effects of legalized Web gambling”.

Wonder what his response to this would be

http://www.ncrg.org/sites/default/fi...ling_final.pdf Its a joke, its exactly about his bottom line. Don't pretend your on your high horse and you care about people. The only people he cares about are himself and his stockholders. Sure land based casino revenue has been flat, we did just come out of the worst recession / depression around the world since the great depression. Most industries have been flat or worse.

Yet another member offered….

there's nobody who isn't arguing online gaming is bad for b&m casinos. also nobody on this forum could begrudge alderson for doing what's best for his business interests (and if they did they'd be hypocrites)

however that bull**** is insulting to the intelligence of anyone, not just the online poker player he's trying to screw over. who does he expect to win over with his hilarious appeals to morality? this would be like the CEO of phillip morris saying we should ban ______ because it may cause cancer

Another member of the forum questioned Adelson’s assertion that online gambling has already ruined the brick and mortar industry in other countries such as the UK:

The interesting thing to me is what he left out. Online gambling has been legal and widely available in the UK for a decade and advertised heavily for most of that time. The UK market is the most developed and competiive online gambling market in the world and there are a couple of things he fails to say
1) Problem gambling has not escalated - there is no statistically significant increase between 1999 and 2010.
2) UK casino revenues are up over that period.

He claims all woe is me if online gambling is legalised but we have a test case to look at and his disaster scenario has just not happened. There is some public disquiet about the scale of advertising and the visibility of gambling but the focus of this has been against high street bookmakers having casino games on FOBTs - a campaign organised by someone who has an ongoing financial interest in casino table games.

When the UK nearly got a supercasino in Blackpool the casino lobby organised to keep big US players like this guy out of the UK via a very pubic anti gambling campaign. They took the pain of attacking their own business to keep out a competitor. It was the licenced incumbents opposing the new entrant by building fears regarding their own activities.

The casino business is a very nasty one - they eat their own young. Anything to keep the competition out.

*Revel Casino in Atlantic City to Refund Slot Losses - Starting July 1 and continuing for the entire month, Revel will refund 100 percent of slots losses to anyone who signs up for a players' club card from the casino.

*Razer Signs Poker Legend Marcel Luske - Razer, one of the world’s pioneering supporters of e-Sports, and Marcel “The Flying Dutchman” Luske, one of the world’s most recognized and respected professional poker players, have formed an exploratory partnership to see how Razer can impact the world of online poker. In 2001, Marcel went from playing poker in market cafes to contesting hands at professional tables, and has since amassed more than $4 million in live tournament winnings. With a top-10 finish at the ‘World Series of Poker’ and 20-some-odd additional 1st place finishes, Marcel already stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the most prominent names in poker history. (source: LegitReviews.com)

*Everett, Massachusetts Residents to Vote on Wynn Casino Proposal This Weekend - Everett residents vote Saturday on whether to allow a $1.2 billion resort casino in the city.

The issue is a divisive and personal one for some residents.

“I want education. I want the arts. I want good things for the people of Everett. Not problems with gambling, not problems with crime,” said Evmorphia Stratis, a 61-year-old art teacher who fiercely opposes the casino, calling it “heart-breaking” for the city. (source: WBUR)

- Ace King, Gambling911.com