The well-known casino operator Golden Nugget has announced that they intend to leap into the future gaming in the USA – online gamblng.
The company has plans for debuting their iGaming through two websites – the GoldenNuggenCasino. com and GoldenNuggetPoker .com at two of its Nevada Casino and also one in Atlantic City, NJ, and its planned to take place this Fall.
At this stage there are no plans for the Biloxi Golden Nugget, because online gambling in Mississippi is still illegal. Efforts to get online gambling in this state have failed over two attempts in the past two years, they have not made it out of the committee.
Rep. Bobby Moak said July that the regulation of online wagering is a potential source for millions of dollars, that the state can earn, from online gambling, annually, for the states that have already embraced it.
Rep. Moak said that the proposals that he initiated the past two years will be reintroduced again during 2014 for the regulation of licenses, tax on online gambling which will be 5% of the gross revenue. He continued that Online gambling licenses will only be issued to gaming companies that already have licenses registered for land based casino in the state of Mississippi.
Rep. Moak, who is a Democrat in Bogue Chitto, has in the past faced harsh opposition from Republicans, who are probably concerned about the potential for gambling addiction. It is hoped that a Brand like the Golden Nugget, to publicly back online gaming, could thus lead the lawmakers, in states similar to Mississippi, who are outside the traditional strongholds and that have made inroads into gaming and further study for it, a possibility.
The Golden Nugget is owned by Landry’s Inc. and the brand has grown from the operation of its namesake seafood restaurants, into the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars for existing and new casinos, this includes the old Isle of Capri casino in Boloxi, which reopened in June, as the Golden Nugget Facility.
The company has had a progressively aggressive gaming push, at a time when the industry was going through a recession, impact on gamblers ability to be able play games and wager on them because of the increased illegal online gambling.
The CEO of Landry, Tilman Fertitta, has said in a recent news release, that iGaming is set to become a 'multi-billion-dollar' Market in the USA, and that they want to have a major role to play in this emerging industry. He also said that the company had hired the former CEO of Betclic, Thomas Winter, who headed a European gaming website that has a $US200 million in revenue annually, to become the head of Golden Nugget's effort at online gaming, and has also engaged Bally technology who will provide the technical know-how.
Should the Golden Nugget prove successful in New Jersey and Nevada with online gaming, and their competitors also show similar returns, it could, therefore, be more difficult for the states to keep online gaming becoming legalized and be regulated in Mississippi.
The State's gaming officials are looking towards a re-establishment of the Casinos in Mississippi, to become the top destination in the USA, as well as Nevada and New Jersey. In a decade several of the Great Lakes and Midwest states have bumped down, Mississippi to the lower pecking order.
Could online gaming be the way forward?Maybe... and could the moves by Golden Nugget prompt more discussion on this exciting issue in Mississippi – it practically a sure bet!
