PPA Says Online Poker Needs Casino Style Games To Survive
October 14, 2014 6:14 pmDuring the upcoming lame duck session taking place between November 9th and 26th, Congress is expected to debate the ‘Restoration of America´s Wire Act’ (RAWA) which if eventually passed into law will outlaw all forms of online gambling, except betting on internet pari-mutuel horse racing and fantasy sports betting.
In the past, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has indicated it was prepared to support such a bill provided it included a carve-out for online poker, but now the PPA’s executive director John Pappas (photo) has moved to clarify the organizations position on the issue, and recently stated that:
“If there was a bill that banned online casino games but legalized online poker at the federal level, we would support that all day long.”
However, instead of clarifying matters, Pappa’s statement seems to have caused a certain amount of bewilderment amongst poker players and interests groups who subsequently took to online poker forums to air their concerns. Nevertheless, it is now clear that what Pappa’s meant is that the PPA’s loyalty to online poker means it would consider a federal bill with an online poker carve-out, but not one which relied on individual states to decide their own legislation and regulation.
At the heart of the PPA’s belief is that if online poker was legal across the whole of the USA the industry would benefit from large player pools and thus thrive, whereas a bill which represented a continuation of the present situation in which individual states determined their own online poker policies would be less viable unless online casino games were available to boost revenues. Case in point, on average online poker generates just 20% of revenues in the USA’s three regulated online gambling markets, and without online gambling games thrown into the mix there may be little incentive for operators to enter the market.
Elaborating further, Pappas explained: “We’re going to fight tooth and nail to protect the interests of poker players, but poker-only in the US might not be a sustainable model to benefit players, long-term.. If you cut off all other games in the US market, investment and interest would shrink considerably.”