It was a win win for both – cheap bone to throw to the religious fanatic base for get out the vote reasons and the real reason – a big bone for protecting the wealth of big US land interests.
I read an article where a rep. from Nevada already has a bill ready to be voted on next year to ‘study’ the viability of regulating the online casinos. I’m sure it will pass – just a study. Meanwhile you got all of these millions of poker players pissed and all of a sudden I can see in the future where they will make it legal again. Difference is most of the competition for the land based casinos will be out of the way by then, either bought out by them or run into the ground.
I watched a similar type of thing happen with the fiber optic market involving the entrenched utility/phone companies about 10 years ago. Every single new company ended up in bankruptacy with the older companies going in and buying the goodies that were left over for pennies on the dollar. All because they were able to put regulatory roadblocks up for these companies. This was one of the reasons the Nasdaq tech bubble crashed. It’s like watching history repeat itself.
My only question is if Harrah’s will have an affiliate program down the road.