Live Dealer Seems Like A Smart Way To Introduce States To iCasino

My wife and I aren’t Luddites, but we (read: she) had big plans to keep our kids off of social media for as long as possible.

She read all the literature, how it’s bad for brain development, how it’s a cesspool of online harassment, how it can lead to weird self-image issues, all of it.

And then, a few years ago, my son asked if he could play Roblox. 

We relented. 

Then he said “all” his friends were on SnapChat. 

So we gave him a half-hour a day.

Then, then, then, then, and now, a few short years later, I’m pretty sure he has Mark Zuckerberg on speed dial, is on a first-name basis with Elon, and is involved in high-level talks with the Chinese government to keep TikTok legal here in the United States.

Once the door cracked open, everything came tumbling out.

Baltimore shuffle

Steve Ruddock, a contributor to Casino Reports and author of the daily must-read Straight to the Point Substack, recently noted an editorial in The Baltimore Sun that advocated that Maryland shouldn’t rush into the online casino waters, but should instead dip in its pinky-ringed fingers.

“One compromise might be, for example, to permit online poker games alone and then only with live dealers,” the editorial read. “This would limit the appeal much more than, for example, mindless spins of online slot machines.”

Ruddock, at the time, liked the idea, saying the editorial board “may have accidentally stumbled upon a good compromise if full-fledged online casino gambling is off the table.”

Fast-forward to today, and the idea of states going forward with live dealer before going full-out with online casino is gaining momentum, as a recent story by Play USA’s Matthew Kredell explained.

“Why not just live dealers? I actually think live dealer can be an interesting solution in a lot of places,” Soo Kim, the chairman of Bally’s, said in the piece. “It’s like a half step. We don’t have to do iSlots yet because, with iSlots, there’s a lot of people fighting over it. That’s why I’m like, ‘Hey guys, instead of fighting over iSlots, why don’t we try to get live dealer?’ I bet you there will be very little resistance.”

Why “very little resistance”? Well, it would create revenue and jobs, won’t be seen as a direct and/or existential threat to brick-and-mortar casinos as much as an extension of them, and will almost certainly avoid the true pearl-clutchers in our midst from, well, clutching their pearls. 

Of course, for the legislators and stakeholders, live dealer is not seen as the be-all, end-all, as Kredell explored.

It’s seen as a way into the much more lucrative world of iCasino. 

Just crack that door open a little bit and …

It’s live, and not so spectacular

Hi, my name is Jeff, and I play online casino in New Jersey.

Well, “play” is strong; I’m a bonus-hunting, free-spins-spinning, iCasino nit. 

Listen: I’m small potatoes. My main form of gambling is low-stakes daily fantasy in big tournaments, and so if I can scrape together $5, $10, whatever, playing free and bonus stuff on iCasino, I do it. 

And while I rarely engage in “real” play, as I loathe anything that is -EV, I … sometimes do. I’ve tilted out on Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania Slingo with the best of ‘em. I don’t like it, but it happens.

And sometimes, I do wander over to the live dealer section of the casino apps. 

Not my favorite, to be honest. Lacks the fast-paced immediacy of online casino table games and slots and there’s no 20-cent level, which is my preferred way to tilt.

In fact, the lowest levels I’ve found at live dealer table games — read, blackjack, as I don’t do roulette or craps — is $5.

So, OK. A $5 blackjack table. The pace is comparatively slow — again, it’s live — and I suppose it’s about 60% as fun as sitting at a “real” table. The gambling aspect, the thrill of it, remains, but there’s no one bringing me drinks, and as far as camaraderie at the table, I’m not much of a group-chatter.

As far as passing a little time goes, it’s OK enough.

But there’s a big problem at these low-stakes tables that I’m guessing (hoping) doesn’t exist at the higher levels: There always seems to be some joker who’s hitting on his 18 to the dealer’s six.

Actually, it may be the actual “The Joker” who’s doing this, as some men just want to watch the world burn.

Why they do this — why they think it’s fun to burn $5 to torment 100 or so other people playing — is beyond me, but it seems like whenever I wander over, that happens.

So I rarely wander over anymore, outside of the occasional promo.

Of course, I’m probably in a small sliver of the minority when it comes to iCasino in general in that I almost exclusively play the bonus and promo stuff, and rarely allow myself to play those aforementioned “mindless” slots for real money.

And they are mindless, let’s not pretend. It’s just little dopamine rushes every single time, a rat in a cocaine maze, and the risk of getting out over your skis is real, especially if you’re prone to addiciton.

Know thyself, and I know I’m liable to do something silly with online slots. So I stay away. Mostly. Usually. Sometimes.

The threat

Why has iCasino legislation stalled nearly everywhere outside of the seven states where it’s legal? If you’re reading this you know the list is semi-endless, from cannibalization concerns to competing agendas to not a ton of lobbying efforts to problem gambling concerns.

However — and call me a cynic — I don’t think problem gambling concerns are on the minds of most legislators. My view may be tinted from covering politicians in Trenton for the better part of 25 years, but still, let’s not get this twisted. It’s not problem gambling concerns that are keeping iCasino in the station. It’s just — mostly — legislative non-interest for the reasons outlined above.

That said, I’m a proponent of legalizing iCasino, mostly because it’s already happening in many forms, both illegal (offshore) and kinda legal (sweepstakes), and why not give the people what they want and are already using?

Which is why I agree with The Baltimore Sun, I agree with Ruddock, and I agree with Kim. Live dealer — despite its “meh” fun level to me — sure does seem like a smart way to slow roll iCasino into states.

It would create jobs, create revenue, keep cannibalization concerns at a minimum, would (at minimum) pay lip service to the problem gambling concerns, and would, almost surely, lead to the floodgates eventually being opened up.

Just ask my son. He knows from floodgates.