Harrah’s May Be an Online Casino Soon

Written by Haylie | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Harrah’s believes in their potential to be successful in the online gambling trade despite previous failed attempts by MGM a few years back. Like Harrah’s, MGM planned to open an online casino product first in Europe to be a head-on competitor of big sites like William Hill and Ladbrokes. It’s not a bad idea to test the waters and see what happens when a big land-based casino conglomerate opens up shop online. While European gambling may be a bit different than American gambling, online casinos are pretty much the same across the globe, so as long as Harrah’s follows the equation, they may have a chance.

Harrah’s is better off than MGM now because the industry has really changed, and online bettors are expecting this merger of land-based and online gambling. Harrah’s also has the advantage of owning all rights to the World Series of Poker, although the WSOP Europe didn’t do too well in Europe after only two years running.

Members of the American Gaming Association (AGA), federal lobbyists for land-based casinos, have not been in agreement on the issue of land-based casino giants getting into the Internet casino trade. While most of these American land casinos have recently realized the attitude that if you can’t beat them, join them, there are still some who disapprove of the mix of online and offline gambling. The two biggest members of the AGA are MGM Mirage and Harrah’s Entertainment, both of which are proponents for some sort of legislation and regulation pertaining to the allowance of online gambling in the US.

There are some who do oppose the legalization of Internet gambling, namely Steve Wynn, owner of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas resorts. He thinks, like others do, that the Internet gambling business is too risky and may end up leading to the embarrassment of the land-based casino industry. Now the AGA is forced to play Swiss on the position and remain neutral.

Recently, Harrah’s launched a Montreal-based subsidiary that will allow for them to capitalize on the spread of online casino gambling to be headed up by former PartyGaming CEO, Mitch Garber. This comes on the heels of rumors of a partnership between Harrah’s and PartyGaming, which just happens to own the fourth largest online poker room on the Net… and the plot thickens.