CNBC just said in the intro to the episode of "Strategy Session" that is showing now:

<verbatim> "Also, will casino gambling be coming to a computer near you? The CEO of the biggest online gaming company in the world explains why his firm is doubling down on that bet."

The show is on now. They did not name either the CEO or the company or say exactly when the person will be on the air, just that it will be some time this episode (show is 30 minutes I think).

Also, LOL at how the media keeps saying that online gambling "may be coming."

It was actually Gary Loveman of Caesars Entertainment. He was interviewed about a number of things both iGaming and B&M-Gaming related. His main points:

1 - iPoker is the preferable launching point for online gaming, as opposed to regular house-backed casino games
2 - Federal legislation is preferable to state legislation because small player pools won't make for a good poker experience. He also mentioned that he believes that if two states pursue separate state legislation and then later want to take bets across state lines, they will need to pressure Congres to change the Wire Act
3 - iPoker does not cannibalize overall B&M casino operations because the customers come from different demographics, with online poker players being primarily young men and B&M casino customers typically being older and from both genders.

#1 and #2 are nothing new. #3 I thought was interesting. I have always thought that B&M operators could use an online room to drive players to their B&M operations, but Loveman seems to think that they are two entirely different customer groups. He specifically said that their UK online gaming customers and UK B&M casino customers are two very distinct groups of people.

Off topic, but our boy Gary also made some statement like "Casino companies have made some capitally irresponsible decisions over the past few years," which I nominate for the Understatement of the Year award.

Video of interview now up on CNBC http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000015891

Thanks for posting this. Pretty solid interview overall.

Agreed for sure. Kinda surprised he was forthright enough to actually come out and say it.

Feels like we have some concrete momentum in our favor atm. The DC legalization was completely out of left field but it is a pretty ballsy statement by them and maybe it will give other states the green light and eventually at the fed level. Don't wanna get hopes up again but I can't help but feel optimistic about where this is headed.

Tks for posting the link. I think it's the best interview I've seen. He really knows the subject well. To say he is on our side is like an understatement at this point. My, how things have changed. I thought we might finally get it legalized in like 3-5 years with more toward the 5 year range (that was like 6 months ago). I'm now seriously thinking with all the stuff going on we might be looking at legalized internet poker much much sooner than that. I mean I won't be suprised (almost expect now) if by the end of like 2012/early2013 Harrah's isn't running a legal website in the US. Momentum has changed and it almost looks like the writing is on the wall. I mean look at Washington D.C. lol. I hope I'm not wrong on this but there is just way too much going on to think something is not happening. And I like how he outlined specifically internet poker several times during the interview. Great signs all over the place.

What a great interview imo. FTP or Stars could stand to hire him as a business consultant. You can tell just listening to him how intelligent he is, and hes way up in the gaming industry with years of experience. Good ally to have.

Nova, that link doesn't work for me - not sure why? Odd, it seems to work for others.

Here is another copy of it. I think that the convo with him was broken up into three parts: two parts split by a commercial break, and a third part that was to continue via webcast only.

The first two parts can be found here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42569391

I didn't catch the web-only part, but it should eventually show in the archives here (it isn't there yet as of this post) http://www.cnbc.com/id/41056839/