DoubleDown Casino exec optimistic on U.S. legalisation

The Casual Connect social gaming conference in San Francisco this week continued to deliver online gambling newsbytes as the convergence of real-money gambling and social networking was discussed by delegates.

GeekWire reports that Charles Harper, IGT DoubleDown Casino’s director of business development, said that he thinks real-money gambling authorised and regulated at the federal level is “…around the corner”.

“I think it’s imminent, but I think they’re going to wait and see how some of the states implement it before anybody will take that jump,” Harper said. “I’m going to say one to three years.”

Harper cautioned that while real-money gambling may be coming, it doesn’t seem to be a big priority on a national level at the moment.

“I think that the federal government will eventually do it, but I don’t think they’re feeling a huge rush right now,” he said, opining that the current situation made it difficult for companies to formulate long term real-money strategies, and that as a consequence big market players seem to be skirting real-money offerings.

When asked about whether DoubleDown has any plans for moving into the real-money gambling space in the US, Harper said that being owned by casino game maker IGT puts DoubleDown in an interesting place.

“You know what? We work for a company that does it already, so I’d argue that we’re already there. Is there going to be a DoubleDown (real-money gambling) app? I can’t speak to that, and that’s not an ‘it’s coming,’ or anything like that,” Harper hedged.

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