Online poker has been very slow to catch on in the U.S.—due mostly to regulations outlawing it—and that has proved a “great frustration” for Caesars Entertainment Chairman Gary Loveman.
Speaking to National Public Radio, Loveman said the rollout of online poker has been slowed by the lack of states that have legalized it—only Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legalized online play—which has hurt the industry’s ability to grow a customer base.
“I think it stalled in part because we don’t have a sufficient population of people from other states playing to make the offering as compelling as it needs to be,” Loveman told KNPR in Nevada. “This is one of the great frustrations of the years I’ve been in this industry is that something that is so intellectually straightforward has been so difficult to execute. The idea that Americans cannot legally play poker online…strikes me as almost crazy.”
Loveman, who stepped down as CEO in July, did say, however, that he takes heart from the more liberal attitude the major sports leagues have taken towards betting, as well as daily fantasy sports, which he said is similar to online poker as a game of skill. .
“The solution for this is going to come from an unexpected place,” Loveman said. “And once the NFL moves to the point where they in fact favor this, I think you will see a federal action that legalizes sports betting, somehow defined at the federal level and virtually every state will participate. Once that Rubicon has been crossed, I think poker will very naturally fall in because it has an awful lot of similarities to fantasy sports.”
Loveman also commented on Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) suddenly switching to opposing online poker and aligning with Sheldon Adelson’s drive to ban online gambling.
“I respectfully disagree with the senator, with whom I have had countless conversations on this topic,” said Loveman. “I think that the world is one where virtually every transaction or decision is now mediated through a digital interface on some type of mobile device and the notion that the one thing you can’t do is to play a game of chance of skill for consideration on a mobile device, I just don’t understand the logic of that.”
