Bodog’s Patrik Selin says glittering US poker market isn’t golden — yet

Steven Stradbrooke
August 7, 2010
3 Comments

Bodog-Patrik-Selin-US-Poker-Market-2As the major online gambling companies wipe the drool off their chin in anticipation of a potentially legal US online poker market, Bodog Europe CEO Patrik Selin is trying to inject a dose of reality into the proceedings. For starters, nothing has changed yet, nor will anything change for the foreseeable future. Secondly, government approval walks hand in hand with government taxation – a burden the big US-facing sites are not currently bearing. And while the government’s blessing might encourage many new players to give the game a try, these players will be taxed on both deposits and winnings, which could limit their enthusiasm for sticking with the game long term.

And while companies like PokerStars are claiming they’ll have no problems winning approval from US licensing authorities, there’s little confirmation being issued from the government camp. In fact, the biggest beneficiary of legal online poker in the US may be a company that isn’t currently on the list of top poker sites. There have been four different market leaders since 1998 — Planet Poker, Paradise Poker, Party Poker and PokerStars – and with the US legislation as currently written, the most likely contender for new top dog would be Zynga, if it chose to offer money games. Bottom line, it would be good for everyone to remember that the welcoming oasis on the horizon often turns out to be nothing more than a mirage. Read more.

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Tags: Article, Bodog Europe, hr2267, Patrik Selin
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  • http://CalvinAyre.com Calvin Ayre

    The US strategy in play now is to use a number of tools to block Americans from opening up accounts with Licensed international gaming companies so that US companies can run things when they eventually allow it…which everyone now thinks is if not when. I do not personally think they will let any international companies into this space unless its as a junior partner with a US entity. I also think a lot of individuals will be persona non grata.

    All the big high traffic sites will jump into this space once its open…Yahoo, Bing, Google, Facebook to name just a few. I also think the TV networks will get involved in some way. Pokerstars, Party Gaming, Bwin etc will never ever get a license in their current form (and of course the public companies are going to have a hell of a time restructuring).

    They will all have spent millions of dollars and thousands of executive hours on something that will only benefit others. However, i do not believe that Pokerstars will ever be entirely forced to exit offering accounts to US residents….I think the ability to force this is hampered once the US officially enters this space as what ever international support these efforts now get will evaporate and if its not working now, how will it work with less international support.

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