3-Bet: Federal Bill Introduced To Repeal Online Gaming Law in US; Connecticut Tribes Seeking Location For Las Vegas-Style Casino & Svenska Spel Extends Deal With IGT

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  • PG News September 27, 2016
  • 3 Minutes Read

A bill that seeks to eradicate online gambling in the US has been floated by a Republican Senator, makes for our first story in this PokerGuru 3-Bet. The second is about two native tribes in partnership seeking a suitable location to launch a Las Vegas-styled casino in Connecticut and the third story is about a Swedish company extending its 10-year old deal with an American gaming provider for another four years.

 

Republican Senator Launches A Bill To End US Online Gaming

Sheldon Adelson’s fight against online gaming in the US is set to get a huge boost, if a recently introduced bill is made law. Proposed by Republican Senator Tom Cotton, the shell bill S 3376 has been formulated to “ensure the integrity of laws enacted to prevent the use of financial instruments for funding or operating online casinos are not undermined by legal opinions not carrying the force of law issued by federal government lawyers.” Currently the bill is with the Senate Committee and is expected to be scheduled for a hearing in the future.

The bill alludes to the decades old Wire Act of the US, which was re-read by the Obama administration Department of Justice to allow states to host internet lotteries and online casinos. Thereafter, Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware launched a regulated online market for gambling. Currently Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, New York and Massachusetts are also seeking to go the same way, with controlled web gambling.

Casino mogul, Adelson who has billions as personal wealth alone, launched a personal and wide-spread attack on online gambling, pledging his own money to get the new interpreted law repealed and to bar the activity. His chief grouse is well-known to be PokerStars, though he claims it is because he considers online gambling ‘immoral’.

In the two years of electioneering by the Republican National Party, this is the first time that such a bill against online gaming has been introduced. If passed it could eradicate a market that would be worth $4 billion by 2020.

 

Location Hunt For Las Vegas-Styled Connecticut Casino

Two tribal casinos in Connecticut have yet been unable to finalize the location for a third Las Vegas-styled casino and have once again invited applications for the same, with a deadline for applications expiring on October 15.

It was reported that East Hartford, Hartford and Windsor Locks were the current contenders for the spot and that more municipalities would be soon joining the fray.

The two tribes – Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribeshave a partnership and are seeking to launch a casino that would rival the one being set up by MGM at Springfield Massachusetts. The tribes had begun looking for a suitable location last year, which is expected to be on non-tribal land, if the law allows it.

It is being said that the MGM Springfield would be operational by late 2018 and cause thousands of Connecticut natives to lose jobs. The state has already seen a decline in tribal gaming revenue by 6.1% in 2013 to 1.7 billion, while it had been as high as $3.2 billion in 2006.

The Mohegan Sun is also focusing on launching a $5 billion casino in South Korea in 2020.

 

Svenska Spel Extends Deal With IGT By Four Years

Swedish company Svenska Spel, a popular gaming platform has extended its current deal with Interactive Gaming Technology (IGT), an American enterprise by four years to boost its portfolio with additional interactive poker products.

Lennart Käll, CEO, Svenska Spel stated that, “For a decade now, Svenska Spel has successfully worked with IGT to offer the Swedish public a fun and safe interactive poker product”. He added that t was vital to have partners that brought innovative and latest products in order to retain clients.

IGT responded with Declan Harkin, Senior VP and CEO saying, “By leveraging industry best practices and our experience as a successful B2C operator in the Italian interactive market, IGT’s enhanced multichannel suite of interactive poker products will help Svenska Spel to reach a broader player base.”

The extended deal will have IGT providing Svenska with new graphical interface, new game formats and tournament variations to be used across its various platforms on desktop computers, mobiles and tablets.

IGT will also add to Svenska’s portfolio its ‘Poker Challenge’ tournament format as well as ‘Character-Based Cash Tables’; both which are currently awaiting a US patent.

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