Casinos and gambling have been in the news a lot recently. The large traded companies such as Las Vegas Sands (Public, NYSE:LVS), MGM Mirage (Public, NYSE:MGM) and Wynn (Public, NASDAQ:WYNN) have seen their share prices bounce about on almost an hourly basis. Firstly they were caught in the middle of large developments when the credit bubble finally burst and the economic crisis took hold, then they had to simply sit back and watch as visitor numbers decreased and gambling spend decreased.

All the financial troubles have affected every industry but gambling has had the proverbial ace up it’s sleeve, gamblers will always gamble. This is the saving grace of the casino industry as a whole and as long as they do not get caught with a particularly old and out of favor property the casinos will bounce right back.

Macau is simply staggering in its growth and the government are right to want to slow it down. Having visited Macau many times over the years both before and after the Las Vegas invasion it is no surprise that it is growing so rapidly. There is not a hint of just being there for a vacation and maybe take in a show, the people are there to gamble plain and simple.

So back to Las Vegas and what the future holds here, it looks good. CityCenter will revitalize the location and give that extra reason for post economic belt tighteners to come and visit Vegas. The bigger question is where does LVS, MGM, Wynn and the like go from here? Where will they be in say 5 years?

Steve Wynn has just opened his latest venue in Macau and rumors are flying about him moving his global headquarters there, is he turning his back on the future of Las Vegas and the U.S. Market? Doubtful but given the squeeze by the Chinese and Macau governments on the number of gaming tables allowed, it would seem logical that whoever has the best ties to the authorities would be best suited to get any new ones and placing a global head quarters there would be quite a boost for the pride of the local government. We all know that can never hurt when asking for things.

Las Vegas Sands and MGM Mirage have some choices as well, let’s talk about the Elephant in the room shall we. Barney Frank has his bill to repeal the unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The bill was set to be considered late last week but has been moved due to a scheduling overload.

The bill, seeks a 6% tax on all deposits made at an online casino to be paid to State and Tribal governments, an additional 2% of all deposits would go to the federal government. The estimates for this tax is $30 billion generated for state and tribal governments and a further $42 billion for the federal government over the next 10 years.

Historically the established casino operators in America have been against online casinos stating they could not provide enough safeguards for the player, however in 2008 the land based casino industry and the American Gaming Association set out to test this, a test that the online casino technology has since passed with ease.

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So what about revenue numbers? Well if we take 2008,the gaming revenues on the Las Vegas strip were $6.12 billion. The estimated so called illegal online casino revenue from the United States for the same period was $5.9 billion. The scale of that figure does shock many people and that is without online casinos being legalized, can you imagine what that figure would be then.

The other main advantage for lets say Las Vegas Sands as an example would be the set up cost’s, now we know it is not chicken feed to set up and market an internet site these days but in relative terms it must equate out to a new carpet throughout one of their casinos. That is a very small outlay for a slice of a new market that could easily be 4 times as big as Las Vegas in its first year on legalized operation.

Now is the time for the big casino operators to both get behind Barney Franks bill and to begin the planning for their internet casino offerings, it is not often that an existing industry has an opportunity for first mover advantage all over again but that time is now.