When they’re starting to talk about gambling using mobile devices in the “American Heartland” surely it must mean that mobile really has cracked it as far as the gambling industry as a whole is concerned.
Two of Iowa’s top politicians, one of whom is the Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, have already gone on the record to say they aren’t opposed to intrastate gambling. This is because there are already 150k Iowans gambling and quite rightly they understand that it’s unrealistic to think that they can ever stop this. Until intrastate online gambling surfaces, lottery providers are making noises about technology in the meantime.
According to the Quad-City Times, Iowa’s lottery chief, Terry Rich, told Government Oversight Committee members that electronic delivery of lottery products is “coming fast” given the technological apps available. He didn’t recommend or propose anything, but was quoted as saying there are drawbacks to being “an offline state in an online world.”
Although committee co-chair Rep. Chris Hagenow, said: “I’ve yet to hear any sort of large voice saying we want to have online gambling or we want to have gambling on smartphones. I have not heard that message from Iowans yet. I don’t think there’s any groundswell of support for that, and until we hear that, I think it’s a dead issue frankly.”
It’s good that they’re openly discussing certain online gambling options, but anything happening soon looks a long way off. Although it could be a lot clearer when a decision is made on New Jersey over the next few weeks.
