Online Gaming, not what you think

So I work in the other gaming industry. You know, the one with roots in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. When I say work, I mean I work with ISVs that sell product into this industry.

I've been focusing on this sub-sector of Hospitality for almost 3 years now and it's a very interesting environment. The first observation I would like to put in print, is I've met the most congenial technologists in the entire technology sector here. You would think with the amount of competition and an operating environment like you find on Wall Street, the pressure cooker would boil tempers over continually, ahem, just like they do on Wall Street. That just isn't the case. All the CIO's of the major properties on the Strip know each other on a first name basis and often socialize together.

With that said, the other gaming industry is highly regulated and tends to move along the technology adoption path a bit slower than corporate America. When you see activities like this, it's unfortunate:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-10-10T134008Z_01_L10534311_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEISURE-GAMING.xml

I hate seeing the US government acting so irresponsible in introducing legislation. An all out ban does not help enforcement nor protect anyone since the Internet is the ultimate game leveler. Less than 5 minutes on a search engine will provide the willing access to offshore gaming sites ready to take their money and provide them entertainment.

I see this mostly as a knee-jerk protectionist activity and what it means is that Europe and Asia will progress faster than US in the other gaming technologies. This may provide a short term boost to onsite premise gaming, but in the long run it will hurt the US based industry as it falls behind in new technology adoption.

Las Vegas is definitely a top brand. For this to continue, it must be able to compete on a world-wide basis.