Pinnacle
Sports stops taking U.S. bets
By
Aaron Todd
The world's largest
online sportsbook just got a lot smaller.
Pinnacle
Sports, which was founded in 1998, announced this morning that it
is no longer accepting bets from customers located in the United
States. Approximately 60-65 percent of Pinnacle's business has come
from the U.S., according to Eye On Gambling.
The
decision comes three months after President Bush signed the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
"If
(Internet gambling sites) have any kind of exposure in the United
States, or if any of their executives are traveling in the United
States, certainly they risk arrest and prosecution for violating
the law," said David G. Schwartz, Director of the UNLV Center
for Gaming Research.
Pinnacle
gained enormous popularity among sports bettors by offering lines
with reduced juice and $1 minimum wagers. The site also boasts to
have "the highest maximum limits on the Web."
Since
the UIGEA became law, the online sportsbook industry has been in
flux. While publicly owned Internet sportsbooks such as Sportingbet,
William Hill and Ladbrokes haven't taken U.S. bets since the bill
was passed, most privately owned companies have continued to accept
U.S. play.
Many
of those privately held companies, however, have been involved in
a series of buyouts and takeovers.
Sportsbook.com,
formerly Sportingbet's U.S. facing sportsbook, was sold for $1 when
President Bush signed the UIGEA and continues to accept U.S. customers.
Bodog, which also continues to accept U.S. players, bought Betcorp
and moved its offices to Antigua.
Despite
all these shifts, Schwartz says the UIGEA hasn't had much impact
on how much people gamble online. This decision by Pinnacle, however,
will most likely have ripple effects on the Internet sports betting
industry.
"It
could either signal the departure of other firms, creating a chilling
effect, or it could open the door for other people to come in and
take the business that had been theirs," said Schwartz.
Schwartz,
however, doesn't think that the move will decrease overall Internet
gambling, nor will it affect the sports betting industry in Las
Vegas.
"A
lot of the people who come to Vegas recreationally aren't necessarily
the serious sports bettors who are betting online," Schwartz
said. "A pretty big percentage of them are people who are just
coming in and placing futures bets for the Cubs to win the World
Series or something like that; or, they just happen to be in Vegas
for the weekend and they're betting. I think most of the people
who are betting online are fairly serious about it."
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