US players want regulated online gambling

This news actually comes from a survey done by the PPA or Poker Players Alliance regarding online poker, but I have no doubt that it also applies to online casino gambling.  The PPA has been working hard to convince Congress to put laws in place to established federally regulated online poker in the United States. As a result of these efforts the PPA conducted a survey of American online poker players and showed that an vast majority (about 90 percent) would actually welcome federally regulated online poker and would prefer playing at online poker rooms that were federally regulated.  They also showed that despite the big April 15 2010 online poker shutdown, about half of online poker players are still playing on poker rooms regulated outside the US.

You may wonder with the PPA is doing all this when we’re seeing states forming a line to bring legal online poker within their boundaries.  The reason is that while regulating online poker on a state by state basis might provide some relief for online poker players, federally regulated poker would be a much better option — for the players. Perhaps not so much for the states.  With federally regulated poker, the US would be more attractive to the top names in online poker, like PartyPoker.  For players, this would mean bigger sites to play on and a large base to play against.  Iowa is already trying to form an online poker bill that includes Nevada and New York players because Iowa is worried they don’t have enough poker players in the state to make an online poker room a reality.

Of course, Congress is often slow to act and in this case, they may prefer to leave the issue to be settled on a state by state basis so that they don’t have to go on the record one way or the other in an election year.