The Online Poker Online Casino Divide

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When the UIGEA was thrust upon an unsuspecting nation the entire online gambling industry opposed this draconian law in unison. Representatives of online casino operators and online poker room operators spoke out in one voice. It is largely true that the same operators run both online casinos and poker rooms and this was one reason for the unity. However the main reason was that the issue at stake was common, which was the right to gamble online from the privacy of ones homes.

Cases were filed by the representatives of the online gambling industry, like the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) and the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), against the UIGEA focusing on the above approach. Bills were brought in by legislators to overturn the UIGEA. But the online gambling industry soon realized that it was not an open and shut case in their favor. As the situation became more complicated, the online gambling industry offered the carrot of regulation and taxation and again the online poker and online casino segments spoke in unison.

But at one point the online poker faction began to forward an argument that did not apply to the online casino faction. PPA began to stress that poker is a game of skill and not a gambling game and therefore laws preventing online gambling do not apply to online poker. They also took the view that there needs to be legislation clearly describing poker as a game of skill. They do not dispute that there is an element of luck in poker, but contend that the element of skill is much stronger. They argue that the element of luck evens out in the long run and that a better poker player will always prevail over a weaker one over a reasonable period of time. Several academic studies have been carried out putting forward the thesis that poker is a game of skill. This argument helps them in prosecutions against land based poker players as well.

The online casino faction cannot put forward this argument. Most of the online casino gambling is conducted on slot machines, which are 100% games of luck. Other popular games like roulette and craps are also completely dependent on luck. Only games like blackjack, video poker and some casino poker games have an element of skill. But the level of skill is meager when compared with poker. And the fact that players wager against the casino and not against each other takes away what ever little credibility their argument may possess. The bigger issue is that the online casino industry would not want to divide itself.

So the big question is what will happen to the online casino industry should the online poker faction succeed in getting poker declared legally as a game of skill and get itself extricated from the UIGEA mess before any concerted action bears fruit. The entire momentum that has been built up against the UIGEA would vanish overnight. The money power required to fight the administration would no longer be available. The reason is simple. Online poker turnover is so much more than online casino turnover that online gaming operators having got a large share of the cake will be willing to give up the small part.

The silver lining is that it would be costly and inefficient for the authorities to pursue UIGEA against only online casino and if they lose online poker then they may drop the whole thing altogether. At the moment this situation is only hypothetical because neither the law nor the government is likely to accept that poker is a game of skill in the near future.

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