After Signing of New Gambling Law, Some Online Casino Operators Still Feel Secure

Last Friday, president Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and smashed any hopes U.S players still had for a status quo in the online gambling industry. However some online casino operators still feel strong about the potential growth of the industry and the future of their business. Only future will tell if the new gambling law will really accomplish its goals and prevent any U.S citizens from participating in online gambling. The fact that some notable companies such as Partygaming (operator of party poker) have announced their decision to pull out of the U.S market, caused some analysts and industry followers to predict its impending doom or at least the final stamp on its growth. Calvin Ayre, founder of the online casino and poker room Bodog, has recently outlined its plan for the next few months “The way we see it, we have a few months to study the situation and put a plan in place to deal with all anticipated outcomes of the new legislation.''  Although expressing the plans of his own company, we can fairly assume that other online casino are doing exactly the same, and can only express our doubts as to why the companies who have already announced their exodus out of the U.S haven’t chosen the same course of action. Reading Mr. Ayre´s comment might give the notion of a very concerned and skeptic CEO, however he immediately added: “are, however, confident that we've structured our business in such a way that we'll have no problems adapting to any changes in the online gaming environment, we see the future as very positive for Bodog”. At least we can say the next few months are going to be very interesting for us industry followers. It is also important to remember that besides of the financial gain for the online casinos themselves, online gambling has been a major source of income for the small, usually financially weak, countries where online casinos are usually based. Costa Rica is one such country where an estimated 200 online casinos our currently based, an industry that supplies job for more than 10,000 people.