Legal Internet Gambling No Threat to Existing Operators

Online casinos could be all that and a bag of chips.

Internet gambling won’t hurt the pocketbooks of owners of other entertainment operators, says the next head of the Amusement and Music Operators Association. Donovan Fremin told reporters from “Vending Times” that coin-operated games and jukeboxes won’t lose revenue to online casinos, even as they become legal in New Jersey and other states.

Earlier this month, New Jersey legislators pushed through a bill authorizing intrastate online gambling. And California’s lawmakers are once again working on passing a bill allowing online poker to be operated within state boundaries.

Canada also has liberalized rules regarding Internet casinos. Several provinces already are running online gambling sites through their respective lottery departments, and New Brunswick is eying legislation to join in and develop its own online casino site.

But Fremin assured his constituency that penny arcades and jukebox owners have nothing to fear from increased proliferation of gambling. He noted that games purely for entertainment have operated side by side with poker and other gambling machines without detriment to their market share.

“They are different markets with different customers,” said the incoming president of the AMOA. He stated both entertainment types could grow simultaneously.

Some gaming analysts suggest the morphing of the two industries into one will continue apace, aided by the loosening of restriction on Internet casinos and gambling. The development of video games, skill-based slot machines, and character-driven, interactive gambling will lead to a merger of sorts between gambling operators and AMOA members, say experts.