Opinion: Prepare for an interesting year in gaming world

Calendar year 2014 is guaranteed to be an interesting year on many fronts, including the gaming industry. The expansion of gaming in Ohio is off and running at a dramatic pace, with more gaming to come on line this year via racino operations. Can Kentucky be just around the corner as another southern state responding to the exodus of gaming money to surrounding states? Will the Illinois Legislature approve casinos in Chicago? Really the question is when such casinos will be approved, not if they will be approved. The East Coast is becoming a hotbed of gaming expansion activity. Tribes in various jurisdictions (Michigan has become a focal point given the Bay Mills case currently pending in the United States Supreme Court) are pushing the envelope on tribal casino development.

With Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, and Illinois already entering the Internet arena with state legislation approving various forms of intrastate Internet activity, what additional states will jump on the bandwagon this year?

At the federal level, with the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate up for election in November, the chance of substantive federal Internet legislation being passed and signed into law this year is somewhere between slim and none absent truly dramatic events occurring.

At the same time, the industry faces massive challenges in some jurisdictions – New Jersey being the poster child in this respect given the expansion of gaming in the surrounding states. This brings up the question (often asked and pondered but never really answered) – when will an individual state and when will the states collectively hit the saturation point? These are questions that will be pondered and pontificated at most gaming conferences held in the United States this year.