Steve Wynn fears Online Gaming could bring More Land-based Regulation

Throughout the past couple of years, Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson has often been looked at as the biggest enemy of US online gaming regulation. However, his buddy Steve Wynn also doesn’t think too highly of iGaming.

The Wynn Resorts Chairman recently expressed his view of online gaming during the 2014 Global Gaming Expo. As reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Wynn said “not much” when asked about what he thought of iGaming. The billionaire went on to say that he “shares Sheldon Adelson’s conviction” against online gaming.

At the heart of the problem is that Wynn would have to spend “$30 to $40 million” getting his online operation going. And he fears that if his company doesn’t dump all of this money into iGaming that they could “get left behind.” But the confliction comes into play because Wynn doesn’t see the activity as a viable moneymaker right now.

One more issue that he has involves the potential fallout from failed iGaming. As Wynn explained during the Global Gaming Expo, if online casinos fail in of revenue and public relations – i.e. a spike in gambling addiction – this could encourage state governments to begin regulating land-based casinos more.

While Wynn hasn’t resorted to the same fear-mongering tactics that Adelson has in the past, such as “click a mouse and lose your house,” he does seem apprehensive to change. Looking through his concerns,  Wynn worries that regulated online casinos could become a public relations crisis for the industry. Moreover, he shares Adelson’s worries that iGaming will lead to widespread addiction and people gambling in their pajamas.

In theory, these fears seem logical since giving people 24/7 access to online gaming could promote problem gambling. However, it’s worth noting that concrete studies have proven that iGaming doesn’t truly increase addiction. For example, a Harvard University Division on Addiction study found that in its entire existence, iGaming has done nothing to increase the percentage of problem gamblers in the world.

So far, neither Adelson nor Wynn have yet to produce a legitimate study showing that iGaming increases addiction. However, Wynn’s thought that online gaming isn’t profitable right now isn’t totally off base. So far, regulated markets in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have all fallen well short of expectations. A lot of this has to do with geolocation and payment processing issues, but the fact remains that these online gaming markets are still under-performing.