Keep It Simple Stupid

The current arguments in support of legalizing online casino and poker aren't resonating, and I have some thoughts on why.

I’ve been involved in gambling for 25 years. I started as a poker player in the late 1990s and have covered the industry for the last 15 years. I’ve had a bird’s-eye view of the entire legal US online gambling era, from early online poker efforts in the aughts to the repeal of PASPA and the current era of expansion. In that time, I’ve seen it all.

Nothing, not the worst bad beats I’ve suffered at the poker tables, the passage of the UIGEA, or the demise of online poker on Black Friday, has frustrated me more than the slow crawl of legal online poker and online casino gambling.

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I can understand bad beats. I’ve seen them — I was once dealt pocket Aces on consecutive hands, flopped a set both times, made a full house on the turn, and lost to quads both times.

I also understand Congress pulling the rug out from under the online poker community in 2006 with the passage of UIGEA and the Department of Justice finishing the job when it seized the three major online poker sites in 2011.

What I can’t understand is why state after state is deciding to let an unregulated, offshore industry serve their residents rather than the legal, regulated, tax-paying operators that run their land-based gambling industries and, in many cases, offer online sports betting. 

I’m frustrated by elements in the industry who would rather maintain the status quo and seal their eventual fate than prepare for the future. As if the internet is a flash-in-the-pan technology that will soon go away, and our only option will be to drive our Model T Fords down unpaved roads to their houses of gambling.

I’m frustrated by the lack of coherent arguments and the ping-ponging between money and consumer protections that occurs:

Supporter: Online gambling will raise money.

Opponent: That money is not worth the social harm it will bring.

Supporter: We need to protect consumers from predatory offshore operators.

Opponent: the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

What truly frustrates me is that these legitimate concerns are only legitimate if the choice is legal, regulated online gambling, or no online gambling. The actual choice is legal, regulated online gambling, or unregulated online gambling.

[If you’re a regular reader, you know how sparingly I use bolded text]

Yes, I’m frustrated by this, but I understand it. There are legitimate concerns about cannibalization and social harm. As Regulus Partners recently noted, “With nothing less than the future of US gambling legislation at stake… we can only state one fact with certainty: nobody really knows the answer yet.”

Stay on Message

Bill Burr has a bit about arguing with his wife and how when she’s right, she argues the point and nothing else, but when she realizes she’s wrong, she “goes rogue” and steers the conversation in different directions and away from the main point. The bit starts with him saying he has lost every argument, even when he’s right.

Let’s face it: we (supporters of online gambling legalization) are Bill Burr. We’ve lost the plot.

Like we did a decade ago when we let Sheldon Adelson choose the battleground and the rules of engagement, we are being distracted by red herrings and slippery slopes and falling victim to false dichotomies and strawman arguments.

But there’s hope. Bill ends the bit by saying that he’s figured it out and is “turning this franchise around” by staying on the main point.

That’s what we need to do. We need to stop letting opponents of online casinos and poker decide where the conversation goes. We need to stay on message. But first, we need a message.