Top quotes from GIGSE -- Day 1

After a two-year hiatus, the Global iGaming Summit and Expo is back. Speakers at the conference will discuss the future of the Internet gambling market in North America from May 11-13 in Montreal.

Compiled below are quotes from the May 11 "Pre-Conference Workshop."

From staff reports

"PokerStars, if nothing changes, will become the Google of poker in the United States, and it will be more and more difficult for land-based and other licensees across the country to get involved and get those customers back if we wait too long."
– Dann Grevlos, President, Nextenterprise

"The Holy Grail in the U.S. is if you can establish a relationship between an offline offering and an online offering and you can pull it off -- if you can pull those two things together -- where you have a strong offline brand that people recognize and a strong online brand, that's definitely going to be big. Is that possible? Maybe yes, maybe no, but if you can achieve it, you're going to be the winner."
– Kevin Flood, CEO, Gameinlane.com

"You're trying to overlay federal regulations on an industry that has evolved on a state-by-state basis, and I suggest no one has fully been able to get their arms around how precisely that is going to shake out, and when it does happen, because it will happen, who are going to be the winners and who are going to be the losers as a result?"
– Michael Pollock, Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group

"One of the things that webmasters or those who promote online gaming do is share information. Who's good to work with? Who's bad to work with? Who offers good player incentives? Do they pay players on time in a trustworthy fashion? It's not good for webmasters to promote places that don't provide good customer service, particularly if you are working with them on a revenue share basis."
– Michael Corfman, Executive Director, GPWA

"I don't think it should be up to the federal government; I think the federal government could screw up anything. I think that the states should have the right to decide on their own… Intrastate is in my opinion the way to go."
– Frank Catania, President, Catania Consulting Group

"Getting something passed in the United States politically has always been a nightmare. Lobbyists like to take your money but they never really give you any results. And politicians, the state might need money, but when it comes to voting on something that has nothing to do with what a politician does. It's more 'If I pass this bill, will you pass this bill for me next week?'"
– Donald Bailey, President and CEO, Atlantis Internet Group

"It's the Norm Peterson Corollary, or we can call it the Andy Capp Corollary. People did not stop visiting taverns just because they could buy beer at home. We're going to see the brick and mortar gaming industry move towards adoption and embrace Internet gaming, it's going to develop entirely new business models that will harness Internet gaming as (its) principle marketing tool, and once that happens, land-based gaming, armed with its array of brands and licenses is going to alter the face of Internet gaming, and we suggest that all past and present revenue projections will be effectively rendered obsolete."
– Michael Pollock, Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group

"Every one of your businesses should probably have a group or a fan page for Facebook."
– Michael Corfman, Executive Director, GPWA

"One of the really wonderful stories about Facebook is it's really the first multi-lingual application. If I look back to a year or two ago it was predominantly present in only English-speaking countries."
– Michael Corfman, Executive Director, GPWA

"Twitter positions itself as being the pulse of the planet."
– Michael Corfman, Executive Director, GPWA

"(To run an online gambling site), you're going to have to be experienced and you're going to have to have a history of responsible gaming. That's going to be the reality of it. States and governors are not going to approve people who don't have a history of responsible gaming."
– Dann Grevlos, President, Nextenterprise

"Running an online poker site is more complicated than running a stock exchange. You don't have the weekend when it can go down, when you can repair it. Online poker businesses are running 24-7 with thousands and thousands of concurrent players. So building a stable robust platform is a very expensive and challenging task."
– Malcolm Graham, CEO, PKR

"Delaware is a state where 850,000 business entities have their legal homes in Delaware. That's probably one business for every legal resident of Delaware. How did this happen? Delaware decided that it would take advantage of federal law and create a niche for itself. It's going to become a user-friendly state, a place where you want to incorporate your business. The lowest common denominator, essentially, for companies that need to incorporate. I suggest there's going to be some issue at some point with one state trying to become the Delaware of gaming."
– Michael Pollock, Managing Director, Spectrum Gaming Group

"Don't ever pretend your Web site is done."
– Bob Raines, SEO expert

"If you're going to buy a washing machine, you're going to look up information on brands. What does Consumer Reports say? If you're going to buy a book or movie on Amazon you might look at what other purchasers have to say... That's the way a lot of purchasing decisions are made today by consumers, particularly when purchases are for services that are purchased online."
– Michael Corfman, Executive Director, GPWA