[ Home ]

[ Slots News ]

Lasseters Shuts Down

A major presence in online slot machine and casino gambling has closed its doors this week, saddening the community of players that had built around its success. Lasseters Online was a pioneer in the world of online casino play, and was something of a founding father of the now-thriving industry: it was one of the initial sites in the World Wide Web to take bets. The site’s eponymous parent company has announced that a culmination of unfortunate events was responsible for the demise of this casino giant. Experts say that they had seen the writing on the wall, but that doesn’t make the story any less sobering.

Financial mismanagement is widely considered to be the primary culprit for Lasseters closing. Lasseters International was stubborn, and made what turned out to be a fatal decision not to bail out the online slot machine and casino gambling site last year when it took a massive ($15.5 million) loss in revenues. Like many online casinos that had previously done the lion’s share of their business in the United States, Lasseters was hit hard by the passing and enforcement of the UIGEA. While other online casinos cut their losses and at least attempted to diversify into other markets if they had not already done so, Lasseters never really got behind one solid alternative plan, and suffered for it.

The only online gambling segment of Lasseters International that will stay intact is its online sports betting division. Unlike the online slots and casino gambling arm of its operations, the Lasseters sportsbook is doing well. There are less legal obstacles for sports betting operations, and the company is banking on that to keep them afloat for now.

Back to October 2008 Archive.