When Big Casino Tried to Kill Online Gaming

The maître d’ at one of London’s most exclusive restaurants guided us to a corner table overlooking the Thames. The CEO of a major land-based casino empire had flown me in to discuss their “digital strategy,” and I could tell by the way he ordered the most expensive wine on the menu that this was going to be a memorable lunch.

What I didn’t expect was to spend the next two hours being lectured on how his company was going to “take over the internet.”

“You see, Moshe,” he said, cutting into his £85 wagyu beef, “we understand gambling. We’ve been doing this for decades. These online cowboys have no idea what real gaming looks like. We’re going to show them how it’s done.”

I sat there, knife and fork in hand, listening to this titan of traditional gambling explain how his land-based expertise would easily translate to dominating the digital world. 

In his mind, online gambling was just a fad that his company would crush once they decided to pay attention to it.

I was 34 years old, had been building online casino sites since 1997, and was watching the digital gambling revolution unfold in real-time. But in that moment, I was just the “web guy” being educated by casino royalty.

If only I could have seen the future.

The Secret War Against Online

What that CEO didn’t tell me during our London lunch was that his company, along with every other major land-based operator, was secretly funding a coordinated campaign to kill online gambling entirely.

While PartyPoker was processing a million dollars in bets every hour in 2004, the same executives who were publicly exploring “digital partnerships” were privately testifying before Congress that online gambling was “a cancer that will destroy American gaming.”

Their fear was existential and completely wrong.

The American Gaming Association became the war room for organized resistance. They hired top-tier lobbying firms, funded “protect the children” campaigns, and pushed economic studies claiming online gambling would devastate local communities with 16% revenue drops and massive job losses.

Their biggest weapon? The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.

While they couldn’t outright ban online gambling, they could strangle its payments. By making it illegal for banks to process gambling transactions, they effectively killed the US online market overnight. Major operators like PartyGaming and 888 immediately withdrew from America.

Land-based casinos celebrated. They’d won.

The Learning Curve

Meanwhile, my relationship with that London lunch CEO was evolving in unexpected ways. What started as him dismissing my digital expertise slowly turned into genuine curiosity as online gambling continued to grow globally despite the US restrictions.

The phone calls became more frequent. The questions became more specific. “How do player acquisition costs really work online?” “What’s this conversion rate optimization you keep talking about?” “Can you explain why mobile is so important?”

The man who had lectured me about taking over the internet was now asking me to teach him how it actually worked!

It wasn’t ego that had made him so confident initially, it was fear – fear that everything he’d built in the physical world wouldn’t translate to the digital realm. Fear that decades of casino expertise might become irrelevant overnight.

As we worked together more, I realized we were both learning. He taught me about player psychology, loyalty programs, and the operational complexities of regulated gambling that I’d never fully appreciated. I showed him how digital engagement, data analytics, and customer acquisition really functioned online.

We weren’t just building a business relationship, we were building a bridge between two worlds.

The Secret Hypocrites

But here’s what the public didn’t know during those mid-2000s battles: while these same executives were testifying against online gambling in Congress, their strategy teams were quietly exploring digital partnerships.

I remember conference hallways where land-based casino VPs would approach online operators, not to attack them, but to whisper about potential collaborations. 

“When the regulation changes,” they’d say, “we want to be ready.”

My CEO friend was no different. Even as his company publicly supported anti-online legislation, he was privately asking me to help them understand digital customer acquisition. The smart money knew the truth: they weren’t stopping online gambling. 

They were just buying time to figure out how to dominate it.

The Great Reversal

Fast-forward to 2018. The Supreme Court strikes down PASPA, opening US sports betting. Suddenly, every major casino operator becomes online gambling’s biggest cheerleader.

The transformation was breathtaking. The same CEO who had lectured me about “taking over the internet” was now running digital divisions. Former enemies became integration partners. Anti-online executives were celebrating online revenue growth in quarterly earnings calls.

The numbers told the real story:

MGM acquired Entain’s US operations, Caesars bought William Hill for $4 billion, Penn took a $163 million stake in Barstool Sports, even DraftKings partnered with casinos instead of competing with them.

My London lunch companion? His company now generates over 40% of their revenue from online operations. The “cancer” they once fought became their cure for stagnant growth.

What Really Happened

The land-based resistance was never about protecting gambling, it was about protecting market position. Once they realized online would complement rather than cannibalize their business, the entire narrative flipped.

The delay cost everyone. By fighting online for 15 years instead of embracing it, American operators ceded massive market share to offshore companies and missed the mobile revolution’s first wave entirely.

States with both land-based and online gambling now see growth in BOTH sectors. Players who bet online also visit physical casinos more frequently. The pie got bigger, not smaller.

But the pioneers who built online gambling from 1994-2010, people like the teams I worked with in Vegas Kings, weren’t just creating technology. We were surviving an organized campaign to kill our industry.

Today, that CEO and I remain close friends. He’s one of the most insightful people I know about the gambling business, and our relationship taught me more about bridging different worlds than any conference or course ever could.

What started as him trying to educate the “web guy” became a genuine partnership in which we both learned from each other’s expertise. 

He helped me understand the depth of traditional gambling operations. I helped him navigate the complexities of digital transformation.

The real lesson wasn’t about who was right or wrong. It was about how the best business relationships come from mutual respect and shared learning, even when you start from completely different perspectives.

The land-based casino industry’s complete reversal on online gambling isn’t embarrassing – it’s human nature. But the entrepreneurs who pushed forward despite organized resistance built the future.

That expensive London lunch taught me that the most valuable business relationships often start with completely different perspectives. Sometimes the person lecturing you about your industry becomes your greatest teacher and closest friend.

And sometimes, the industry that tries to kill you ends up spending billions to become you.

“The Power Play by Moshe Adir” is released weekly on the Vegas Kings website and LinkedIn. Drawing from nearly 30 years of experience in design and development for online gaming, Moshe shares exclusive industry insights, lessons learned, and behind-the-scenes stories from the evolution of iGaming. Stay tuned for fresh perspectives from one of the industry’s OG!