Editor's Note: "Insights" is a biweekly column in which experts in various fields shed light on issues that greatly affect the I-gaming industry. We invite you to send in questions you'd like to see the experts address.
There's been a lot of debate in the United Kingdom over how to approach betting exchanges, but how will the situation play itself out in the United States? We asked consultant, attorney and former New Jersey regulator Frank Catania:
Does U.S. law prohibit P2P betting? Will it ever be a viable option for U.S. bettors?
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Frank Catania:
If you have taken the vig, you have become a bookmaker; you just aren't the book.
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Frank Catania - Player-to-player betting is just not something that is going to happen in the U.S., especially when you consider the federal statute when it comes to sports betting. The statute is a little confusing. Are you facilitating if you have a Web site and you allow someone to come on there and make a bet with someone else and then you take a percentage of the bet? You might be facilitating.
I have some clients that I have worked with, though, that have taken a different approach. Users pay to be on the site for a specific amount of time; it has nothing to do with the betting. They bet on anything they want to bet on.
Until we get something (legislation) here in the U.S., basically everything that an operator could get involved with is going to raise questions. No matter what, I don't see anything changing that. It is going to be questionable.
If you have taken the vig, you have become a bookmaker; you just aren't the book. When it comes to sports betting, I don't see anything happening in the U.S in the foreseeable future. The NCAA and the NFL and all these other guys are going to lobby against it so much that I don't think it will ever happen.
Attorney Frank Catania is a principal in Catania Consulting Group, Inc. of New Jersey, a consulting firm with extensive experience in gaming issues. A former deputy speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly, he actively develops and directs the implementation of lobbying, issues management, media relations, community affairs and government advocacy programs for clients. He is a former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), the regulatory and enforcement agency responsible for maintaining integrity and trust in Atlantic City gaming operations.
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