A press conference was held last Tuesday in Washington DC about the current issues related to the legalization of online casino gambling in the United States. The conference, led by Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive officer of the American Gambling Association (AGA), was convened right after a positive reception of an op-ed article about the effects of legalizing the online casinos in the US, which was published in the publication The Hill. Together with Fahrenkopf are several big names in the gambling industry. They include Keith Smith of Boyd Gaming, Gordon Kanofsky of Ameristar Casinos, Virginia McDowell of the Isle of Capri Casinos.

The press conference is calling for the rapid legislation of the online casino gambling industry. According to them, there is already a growing demand by the gamblers in America for the online casinos and other forms of gambling in the Internet. They believe that the only way to fulfill this demand is by the federal government to see the issue and to legalize it at the federal level. The group believes that the recent crackdown of the Department of Justice against foreign companies offering Internet poker is a sign of their protectionist course of action. The four chiefs announce that there will be successive meetings with several political figures already planned in the future to lobby for the cause.

To support their move, Fahrenkopf included a statistical figure that shows that Americans are actually spending $4 billion yearly for online casinos and other Internet gambling forms, in spite the fact that there is restriction set in the US. This amount, according to them, has large potential to generate taxes. At this point, AGA is busying itself drafting a bill for the Internet gambling industry.