Fitch says regulated Igaming in the US increasingly likely

So who are Fitch and and why should anyone be paying any attention to what they have to say about the prospects for a regulated online gambling market in the US?

Fitch Ratings (Fitch Inc.) are a global credit ratings and risk assessment organization who also undertake analysis and research into various markets.  Apparently their opinions carry some weight with the powers that be so they must have a history of being on the money (or at least not too far from it) on most occasions.

Then and again, Moody’s are also considered credit risk gurus and they were rubber stamping sub-prime debt on bank balance sheets shortly before the GFC hit. We all get it horribly wrong from time to time!

Anyway, Fitch just recently released a report into the state of Internet gambling in the US and more particularly likely future legislative outcomes. In the report they rate the chances of legalization/regulation either on a federal or regional level as “increasingly likely“.

“Multiple states have been considering intrastate online gaming proposals, new federal proposals are being discussed, and the budget outlook at both state and federal levels remains strained…Companies have been ramping up online initiatives and/or entering into alliances, such as Wynn-PokerStars and Caeasars-888 Holdings.”

Of course now that the District of Columbia as already green-lighted some form of online gambling for it’s 600,000 or so residents, Fitch’s ‘increasingly likely’ prediction isn’t exactly going out on a long and shaky limb.

Regardless, it is interesting to see a large research organization that is well connected in Washington joining the same dots as many other observers of the net gambling industry.