Pala Interactive CEO Jim Ryan, who was also the CEO of PartyGaming and co-CEO of bwin.party, has expressed his concerns over the likelihood of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) becoming law.
Last week saw Rep. Jason Chaffetz reintroduce RAWA, the anti-online gambling legislation supported by Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson. The three-page bill would create a federal ban on almost all online gambling, seeking to undo the late-2011 Department of Justice opinion that the 1961 Wire Act only applies to sports betting.
RAWA would force Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware—the only states where online gambling is regulated—to close their intrastate online gambling markets and would also restrict state lotteries from offering online services.
“It’s a most interesting time in that we have a Republican-controlled Congress and a well-financed political effort to amend the Wire Act. This is the most significant threat we’ve had post-Black Friday,” Ryan told PocketFives.”I think Adelson’s legislation has a good shot of passing.”
Ryan also said that if Adelson’s group was successful in amending the Wire Act, it would push online gambling into the black market instead of regulating it.
Regulated igaming in California: “…Low Odds of Bill Passing in 2015.”
With the Washington and Mississippi online poker bills now dead, any hopes of another state joining the country’s three regulated markets in 2015 now rest pretty much with California. However, with the Golden State’s gambling interests continuing to find little common ground, the chances of California’s AB 9 and AB 167 bills progressing in 2015 remains a long shot.
“I started this legislative session being optimistic, although I would give it low odds of a bill passing in 2015, but that’s subject to change,” Ryan said. “The stakeholders in California need to reconcile their positions. A lot of people want this to happen.”
New Credit Card Codes for Gambling Transactions
Ryan also expressed his excitement about the new three credit card codes for legal internet gambling transactions—internet gambling, internet lotteries and advance deposit wagering (ADW)–which are expected to take effect on April 17.
“The problem we have today is that banks aren’t coding transactions because they can’t differentiate between regulated and non-regulated operators. With these new merchant category codes coming out, they can differentiate them. That’s cause to be excited,” said Ryan.
“I think it’ll represent a 20% to 30% improvement in depositing, though. For every $1 we successfully deposit right now, we have $2 rejected. Literally, we have a 33% success rate. I appreciate that consumers are trying over and over to deposit, but anything a merchant can do to improve that rate and that process will be good,” Ryan added.
In the absence of the new merchant codes, he mentioned how having traditional e-wallets such as Neteller and Paypal are important in regulated markets and how prepaid and bank-to-bank solutions have evolved, such as PayNearMe, a prepaid card you can buy at 7-11; and Mazuma, a bank-to-bank transfer solution that doesn’t require directly giving merchants your bank account information.
