Quoted

May 15, 2019

Gongwer News Service interviews Jeff Ifrah as Ohio hears sponsored testimony to add mobile device betting to its Sports Gambling Bill

Five states, Mr. Ifrah added, currently operate mobile gaming in some form. “Obviously, they’re not doing that illegally,” he said.

Mr. Ifrah said the concerns often come from casinos.

“Most of the time the real concern – even though it’s not necessarily a spoken one – is cannibalization. Sometimes the casinos are just worried that they’ll lose foot traffic if certain things become available online,” he said.

In the states where mobile gaming has been implemented, the fears have turned out to be unfounded, according to Mr. Ifrah.

“Their experience in the past six years has actually been that people that stay at home and play games on the computer are not the same people that come into their casinos, anyway,” he said. “So, it actually turned out to be a win-win.”

The states that do utilize online gaming each have unique aspects. For instance, Nevada requires users to register in a casino before taking part.

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