RSI backs Trump
The CEO of Chicago-based sportsbook and online casino company Rush Street Interactive (RSI) has hailed the reelection of Donald Trump as a catalyst for US iGaming expansion.
Trump will back moves for “new gaming avenues”
According to Covers.com, RSI’s Richard Schwartz stated Monday that he expects President Trump to back moves for “new gaming avenues, particularly around online casinos.”
The CEO of Rush Street Gaming’s interactive arm made the statement during the 4th Annual Needham Consumer Tech/Ecommerce Virtual Conference.
Schwartz stated the Trump administration will largely avoid federal gaming policy and instead support the iGaming industry. The CEO deemed it “always helpful to have a president who is not opposed to gaming expansion, which is the case with President-Elect Trump.”
Case for iCasino
Legal in only seven states as opposed to sports betting’s 38, iGaming has lagged behind the online vertical despite making $2bn in operator revenue over Q3 2023 compared to $3.2bn for sports betting.
The bottom line, backed up by the RSI CEO, is that iGaming is “far more lucrative for gaming operators – and state tax coffers.”
Schwartz is optimistic 2025 will be a turning point for the vertical, given that state legislatures appear to have unregulated social and sweepstakes casinos in their crosshairs. The RSI exec believes the unregulated operators give state lawmakers the clarity and impetus to push real money casino legalization through next year.
great reason to jump-start even more efforts on iCasino”
The fact that offshore operators are taking big tax money out of states without online casino regulation is, according to Schwartz, “a great reason to jump-start even more efforts on iCasino.”
“Plus, the fact we know that when an iCasino is added to a state with legal sports betting, about three-quarters of the taxes comes from iCasino verses sportsbooks, so it’s a very profitable way to raise taxes.”
Farewell federal ban fears
The path for widespread iGaming legalization in 2025 seems in the cards, especially since Trump’s return appears to have blown a sports betting bill, aimed at taking federal control out of state’s hands, to smithereens.?
Republicans now hold power in both houses of Congress and the White House. Ex-Trump advisor Sam Nunberg summed up the mood last week, stating “there will never be a federal ban.”
“The states are getting too much revenue from it.”