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The European model for online poker may provide a glimpse into what will occur in the United States.
A handful of European nations attempted ring-fencing of Internet poker on a nation-by-nation basis. To date, that experiment has mostly failed, even in Italy where there was some initial success.
Spain confirmed they are considering reaching out to neighboring nations like France and Germany to combine liquidity pools.
A statement from the Spanish regulator reads:
“Coordination of the biannual meetings with regulators from France, Italy, Portugal and Germany to bring positions and formulas to analyze international liquidity.”
France already seems to want in. Italy has witnessed a sharp decline in its online poker market in recent months.
Similarly, individual states in the US such as Nevada and Delaware have passed laws allowing online poker within their borders. But players and operators worry that there will not be a enough of a player pool to sustain even one website once the first such site goes live with real money play.
Case in point, Nevada has a population of under 3 million people. That is way less than Spain’s 47 million. And if Spain cannot sustain a strong enough player pool, how can Nevada possibly do it?
Those behind a bill to allow online poker in New Jersey already addressed the importance of forming compacts with other gambling-friendly states and nations. That state’s governor has until the end of tomorrow (February 7) to either sign or veto the Internet gambling bill. Failure to act will result on said bill becoming law.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
