Regulation better than prohibition, says gambling chief

MGM Resorts chief and American Gaming Association chair Jim Murren continued to make the media columns this week as further quotes from his News3LV interview surfaced.

After suggesting that daily fantasy sports is undoubtedly gambling and should consequently be regulated (see previous report) Murren went on to tackle the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, a federal proposal to ban many forms of online gambling and widely believed to be authored, driven and funded by land casino baron Sheldon Adelson.

Murren said that in his view prohibition was not an effective route to handle the issue of US online gambling, observing:

“People are gambling illegally online – Americans – right now. We don’t know how old they are; we don’t if they can afford to do it; we don’t know where they are. We don’t know if they are actually going to get paid if they win something. We don’t know anything. And to think we can just ban this and that the problem goes away is ridiculous, it flies in the face of common sense. So what I think we should do is regulate it, bring it out in the open.”

Murren went on to warn that banning online gambling would simply drive it underground, not solve the problem.

“That’s why I am an advocate of legalizing, regulating, taxing and holding companies accountable to outcomes, just as we are in the brick-and-mortar business,” he said. “It’s incredible to me that we have this discussion, it really is. It’s more incredible to my 20-year-old, who is going to be 21 soon, or my 17-year-old that live on their smart devices, that wouldn’t consider doing anything – they wouldn’t book a room, they wouldn’t check out anything – without checking their smart devices. We know where the world is going from a social media perspective, from a social gaming perspective.

“We also know that the experiences we create here in Las Vegas cannot be replicated on an iPhone, or on an iPad, or on a laptop, or on a home computer, and we shouldn’t be intimidated by that.”

Murren opined that properly regulated and licensed online gambling is the best way to protect both the consumer and the industry.