Goldman Sachs Predicts Legal U.S. Poker Imminent

Investment giant Goldman Sachs reported to its investors that it predicts online poker to be legalized in the United States. Implying an obvious investment opportunity, Goldman Sachs expects that the United States Congress will pass legislation that will allow the United States Government to regulate, license, and tax online poker, and allow online poker sites to operate (once more) within the United States.

Goldman Sachs cites this latter-most action–taxation–as reason enough to argue that legal U.S. online poker is imminent (or to use their words: “logical to assume”).

It is possible that certain states will decide to legalize (and regulate) online poker within their borders before any federal legalization is passed. This is due in part to the fervent and vociferous efforts of organizations like the PPA (Poker Players Alliance) and iMEGA (Interactive Media Entertainment and Gambling Association) to take the fight all the way, if necessary, to various states’ supreme courts.

It is also because voting on Barney Franks two online gambling bills–one to delay until December the start of enforcement under the rules of the 2006 UIEGA; the other to institute regulations that would allow complying operators to serve U.S. customers–has been delayed until at least September. (And this is because the House Finances Committee which Frank chairs is currently focusing on the economy–lending to the question: isn’t legal U.S. poker all about the economy?

In its report, Goldman Sachs estimates that the U.S. online casino market will become a $12 billion industry. Interestingly, this figure was based on the rake at PartyGaming, parent company of Party Poker.