Remember when the US Government introduced the Safeport Bill to stop online gambling sites taking deposits from Americans? Overnight the market leaders in the online industry lost a large proportion of their player base. Leading sites such as Paradise Poker and Party Poker immediately started to drift down the rankings. Paradise Poker was perhaps one of the hardest hit and has switched from being one of the top online poker sites to now being just a small player on a small network.
Get ready for another massive shake up as many predict online gambling could be legalised in the US within the next 12 months. The online gambling market leaders at the moment are those who are in effect breaking the law and are continuing to accept US players. It is clear that these sites will be heavily penalised when legalised gambling is introduced in the US so many feel these sites could take a major hit. In the online bingo sector sites such as Virgin Bingo and Sky Bingo have played by the US government rules so they should be in a prime position to exploit the new US player base.
Also Harrahs have moved in the online gambling sector launching their own poker, casino and bingo sites. At the moment Harrahs are only accepting UK players but they are in effect positioning themselves for a US return. The Harrahs brand is of course very strong in the US and there are no doubt their sites such as Caesars Bingo would boom overnight if US players returned.
Harrahs are small fry in the online gambling world at the moment. If, or should I say when online gambling is legalised in the US they could become one of the major players overnight!
