 |  U.S. Firms Invest in Online Casinos
27 Dec 2005
If online casinos are considered illegal by authorities of the United States government, why is it that major investment firms like Fidelity Investments are able to hold shares in Sporting Bet in the amount roughly of $363 million, Merrill Lynch holding shares for the same online casinos company for $164 million, and Goldman Sachs Group holding online casinos shares in the company worth $137 million? It is because, for the most part, officials in the Justice Department aren’t so concerned with these and other firms as they are not responsible for those companies’ possible U.S. operations and advertising.
According to Larry Walters, a Florida lawyer specializing in U.S. investment law who has consulted in the past for American firms considering investing in online casinos companies, said the U.S. government has a difficulty when it comes to charging American online gambling investors with liability as they are “passive investors” which, again, do not control online casinos or direct activities for them. Of the laws on the books which are interpreted as applying to online casinos gambling (because there are no specific laws on online casino gambling) “Nobody takes them seriously when they say this is a serious crime," he said of the government and anti-gambling laws. But there is stuff still on the books, however indirect, and somebody could go down heavily if government decides to turn its attention to them.”
Online gambling, according to some analysts, is projected to have reached almost $12 billion in business in 2005, compared to $8.3 billion in 2004. Morgan Stanley, a major financial authority in the U.S., published an analysis of the aforementioned Sporting Bet which noted that Sporting Bet signed up 700,000 new customers in a recent quarter, which is a number equal to all of that company’s sign-ups for the previous year. Sporting Bet takes in $530,000 a day from online poker. If you’re wondering why the U.S. government isn’t cracking down, look at it this way: It’s the money, stupid! |
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