Why Don't Current Casinos open On-Line Sites?

If the current sites like Full Tilt have violated laws and US players can only play for money at the casinos, why don't the casinos open up on-line gambling? Do they really think it will hurt there revenue? because some people are talking like they will go to the casinos but most (I think a very high percentage) like me, will not go to the casinos. I heard talk of this a few years ago but never saw a site open up and I would play at their sites but I won't go to the casinos unless I go on vacation or some special deal, I'd rather play in the comfort of my home where I can play every day. Seems like they are missing the boat on lot of action but there must be some reason.

Because it is not legal for them to accept wire transfers, or any money in regards to gaming online. If they were caught accepting money for online gaming they would need to do what FT/PS/AP did and would be in the same boat as them and would loose their B&M business.

I believe that Black Friday is exactly what the B&M casinos wanted (Get the Big 3 players out of the market) and then push to legalize everything. Once legal it will be a mad scramble to pick up market share! I would not be supprised if most B&M casinos did not already have software created but are now just waiting for US Gov to finally legalize it.

My advice is start saving up your roll for online play as once it is legal there are going to be 3-5 big players entering the US Market for online poker and there is going to be some great promos to get your $.

Also, if interested in investing, look at investing in B&M casinos who you think will have a big online presance as Online poker will be a HUGE cash cow for those companies (players just give money... Let sit in an account and casinos dont pay interest! Things that CEOs, Accountants, and Investors LOVE as Cash is KING). Because of this once you see B&M casinos getting an Online presance their profits will soar and their stock valuation will go through the roof. IMO (invest and play poker at your own risk

Very sound reasoning....you make a good argument for investing ....possibly the next GOLD rush....It may be better than off-track betting....the fan base is there for sure!

Because online gamling/wagering is illegal. Wagering and gambling in a casino isn't illegal therefore they wouldn't be allowed to do either just because they are a casino and is legal in brick and mortar.

Most casinos in the UK have also got an online casino/poker room, obviously there are no laws in the UK on gambling or anything so that's why. I'm sure if the same applied to the U.S you would have nearly every single casino out there having an online one too. Far to profitable a chance to miss and they are all about making money, so given the chance if online gambling is made legal you will see many more open up very quickly!

...have to agree I can see from way up here that the pressure of the casino lobbyists had more to do with this than meets the eye. as far as I know however playing poker online somehow didn't get lumped into gambling , and it shouldn't it is a game of skill. i have a buddy that deals at the aria and that is exactly what he has been saying , buy stock now because this will be sorted out in a relatively short period and the casinos will have the infrastructure ready to go. I wonder if lederer will be leasing them the software...hell yeah

Most if not all the big casinos are already lined up to go online.... but like an earlier poster said... its better to remove the current environment rather than trying to fit into an existing one. This way the regulation will be set up to best serve the US tax dollars.

Casinos already offer intranet gambling on handheld devices that you can carry around the hotel... on your way down from your room to the floor!!! So it is clearly a simple addition.

Also, if you starve a man and offer him a cracker he will think its the best thing in the World... if he has been eating Steak today and you offer him Chicken tomorrow... then he's not going to be so impressed.

Starve the online community so that all the shit that you are going to feed them tastes amazing when you finally serve it up.

Great Thread
This is a very interesting subject, and one I hope to hear more about.

Mostly it'll be because of legal and risk management issues. I doubt there are any casino operators that would be willing to jeopardise their land-based business until they were 100% certain of the legal environment they'd be working with online.

Unless I've read wrong, BTW, it needs to be remembered that most casino games wouldn't be subject to the "game of skill" loophole that has allowed poker sites to claim their operations are legal in the post-UIEGA world.

Interesting claim - I'd be very interested to know what your sources on this are?

I don't actually have any idea how prepared B&M casinos may or may not be to transition themselves intot he online environment. The observation I was going to make though is that running an online casino would require very different core competencies to the ones required to run a successful B&M casino. They know a lot about training dealers and live game security but those skills won't count for anything online.

On the flipside they'll have to either massively expand their information technology capabilities or (much more likely) partner with someone else who already has them. The recent announcements (that have since been retracted) of partnerships between the Wynn casinos / Poker Stars and Full Tilt / whoever their deal was with suggests that the casinos' own capabilities weren't very advanced and they're definitely planning on taking the parntership route.

Good points.

The company I work for sells IT services to a few casinos. You would be suprised at the # of IT folks they already have. Security, gaming, and even just running a business have been going towards the need of more technology for a long time even for the B&M. With that said I gurantee many of them do not have the # of developers, Database, and IT security people needed to put a major site up at this time.

I would suspect every large B&M casino has a plan or at least a few ideas for how they would like to get their piece of online gaming once it is cleared out of the legal grey. (I think the CEO of Harrahs did a interview on this last week... did not see the entire thing and may confirm or refute my suspicions...) For some casinos to enter into the market they will as you mentioned form partnerships with existing sites... I think that also many others will buy out an existing company.... and a few casinos will develop and run their own software and site.

I suspect that partnerships or being bought out will be what happens with the big online players once Black Friday is cleared.

Up for sale: FT, PS, AP (either software or company)
Up for partnerships: online companies that left the US Market in 2006-2009

If FullTilt/AP/PS cant be in the US Market with current execuitve team, what is stopping a B&M buying the company, paying off current managment (who cant do business in the US because of legal issues) and bringing the company in under their B&M umbrella?

Once things are legal and the black Friday mess is cleared, we will see things happen. If the big 3 cant get this money laundering thing cleared or find another way into the US Market I think they will be forced to sell thier company/software. If not, they would be doing their company stakeholders, thier customers, and the poker community a disservice.

I agree that we are used to steak dinner. I think once things get cleared and made legal (I am 75% sure this will happen... but still speculation) we will still get steak but it will be salisburry steak or an artifical imitation T-Bone and it will be 2x as expensive.

Yeah I don't think this is a matter of if but a matter of when. I'm sure the casinos are just waiting to see how Black Friday plays out and waiting for the US government to finally decide there "stance" on online poker, and then they will probably move in on the market.

Ok, so let me educate you on the online gambler.... since I have worked in the industry for 10 years.

The online gambling market is huge... many of the Vegas customers play online and have done for many years. You would have to be a complete moron to not assume that this industry is a perfect complement to your B&M casino. Let's just take lessons from Blockbusters/Netflix, Amazon and any book retailer... the list is endless.

Online gamblers have many different casinos to choose from, generally they are members at several casinos using different software. Once a customer feels comfortable with one or two casinos and their software, they generally stay.

The advantage that the B&M casinos have here is the ADDED security of gambling online with a recognised entity, that has a physical address that you can visit. It makes no sense employing a team of people to "develop" a software, particularly when there are several software developers making excellent casino software. Do casinos build their own roulette tables or employ programmers to make slot machines? Of course not, they purchase these things from suppliers. The online casino extension will be no different. They may choose to take in-house certain elements, such as customer service, VIP management. Perhaps after a while they may take over more complicated elements such as the security and financial processing. The option also would be to purchase the software company and swallow up all the licensed casinos operating under that company and run the entire company for yourself. You have then just purchased all the skills you will ever need.

One things for sure... online poker past 9pm is shit right now!!! So the sooner you guys can get back playing... the better!!

.. it's too true , at full tilt i can now expect to see a couple thousand ppl at night. as I was saying before as far as I understood it lederer was leasing the software to full tilt on an ongoing basis. depending on contract agreement there may be nothing stopping him from leasing it to a B&M. if he was smart enough to not be involved in the payment transaction side i'm sure he is smart enough to have a way out of the lease.

This has already happened in the UK and Europe. Casinos like Genting, Circus and Gala all have on line sites. Unfortunately most of them are using the ipoker network which I am not impressed with at all.

Couple of thousand?!!! If it was a couple thou I was be happy... check this out for a wednesday night on fulltilt:

https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/...type=1&theater

I have played iPoker (used to work for the company behind it) and I don't like it either, probaby due to the look of the software more than anything else. But it is a very safe, secure and reliable network and would be my recommendation over others... plus it has the most players for any poker network.