June 16, 2010 (CAP News Wire) – As the CAP News page pointed out recently, several parts of the American economy stand to benefit significantly if the U.S. (in whole, or just in certain states) decides to fully legalize online gambling.
Now, CyberArts is officially spending resources to help make that outcome happen. The company — which many industry observers site as one the most obvious to benefit from legalized online gambling in California and elsewhere — has distributed a news release endorsing California Senator Rod Wright’s current legislation seeking to regulate Internet gambling (SB 1485).
“The SB 1485 proposes that the California Department of Justice awards a contract of at least 5 years allowing California-based operators to run online poker websites within the state of California,” the news release states. “This is a welcome development, according to Berkeley-based internet gaming software developer CyberArts. CyberArts creates the software to run online gaming sites called Foundation.”
“CyberArts explained to NBC news that the legalization of online gambling within the state could help California’s economy providing both job opportunities and revenues,” the release continues. “CyberArts Founder and Chairman Ken Arnold shared that this could mean more jobs for artists, software designers and engineers, and customer care people to cater to the newly-opened California market. Furthermore, he pointed out, the state would gain back revenues (of around $800 million to a billion) taken out by illegal gambling operators.”
The release goes on to emphasize CyberArts commitment to ensuring that the company would adopt “the highest security measures to avoid fraud in their poker software and networks”, which has been a source of contention in past congressional debates over whether or not to legalize online poker on a federal level.