The final nail was driven into the lid of Iowa’s intrastate online poker coffin on Thursday as the state Senate Ways & Means Committee voted 9-6 to approve an amended version of File 458 from which all mention of regulating online poker had been removed. Instead, the state Racing and Gaming Commission will be tasked with conducting a fact-finding mission for use in possible future attempts at bringing sanity to the corn belt. However, even this minor nod toward regulating online poker met with disdain from Sen. Randy Feenstra, who felt the move “heads us down that slippery slope to approve this someday.” Not to be outdone, Sen. Brad Zaun lamented his state’s seeming inability to “slam the door on this thing,” opining that the mere fact that they were discussing online poker regulation meant that the legislature had “hit a low point.” If he’s referring to the quality of this tired anti-gambling rhetoric, he’s bang-fucking-on.
In the wake of Nevada’s legislature making moves toward establishing the state as an intrastate online poker pioneer, Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman went on CNBC (watch the video here) to reiterate his company’s preference to see regulation happen at the federal rather than state level. Regardless, Loveman is keen to see online poker happen because it represents “a very capital efficient growth piece” that might provide Caesars with enough momentum to finally make that long-delayed IPO a possibility.
When asked whether he was worried about the possibility of online poker cannibalizing his existing brick-and-mortar casino traffic, Loveman called online gambling a “completely different business” that “has the beauty of being provided in a capital efficient manner.” Loveman observed that online poker’s demographics are skewed heavily towards young males, which he claims are not traditionally the land-based casinos’ bread-and-butter, at least not the most profitable slice. “The audiences are rather different and the two activities are quite complementary.” On that last point, it’s nice to see someone of Loveman’s stature (and here we’re referring to his business profile, not his XXL t-shirt collection) finally getting behind the idea of convergence — something Calvin Ayre has been espousing for years now. C’mon in, Gary… The water’s warm.
