[ekdikeo]

By the way, "regulation" would generally imply licensed, inspected, and on the up-and-up.

I just read through the Michigan law that authorized casinos outside of Native American lands, as I was editing it to fit on a web-page (35 or so pages of absolutely mindnumbing repetitiveness).. and I learned a lot about how casinos operate. They have a lot of requirements. The state also gives a huge responsibility for making sure that they are all running within their parameters to the Gaming Board, as well. Some requirements similar to what Richas stated, as well as others.

They are also pretty heavily taxed - 8 to 18% here in Michigan, which I know if I were taxed 18% of my gross income when I was running a business in this state, I would've been out of business in no time flat. Fortunatly, the casinos have no physical product that they are selling (however, I bet maintenance of their facilities and equipment isn't too far off from Cost of Goods for a retail business, but I don't have THAT much insight after reading that bill)

People will have more confidence in a regulated industry, although that will automatically limit the number of entrants that you have in the business.

The Michigan casino law basically requires a drop of somewhere around $10.5M to get a license and up and running, in addition to whatever facilities would be required, which basically automatically precludes anyone not already in the casino business, or who is severely wealthy to begin with. I'd imagine that there would be similar legislation to deal with online gaming, especially if the existing casino lobby were involved in getting that legislation going.

The government isn't going to have any interest whatsoever in keeping the status quo, aside from perhaps not pissing off a few million citizens, which they generally don't give a crap about anyway.