Nevada yesterday pushed through laws which will eventually allow its online poker operators to offer games in other US states which enter into compact agreements with the Silver State.
The bill, potentially critical in enabling licensees to overcome the restricted liquidity within Nevada and to build competitive online poker businesses ahead of those licensed by other states, was fast-tracked through both Houses and signed in the same room where casino gambling was legalised by Nevada legislators in 1931.
Ahead of applying his signature, Governor Brian Sandoval called Assembly Bill 114 “an extraordinarily important bill to our economy”, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Bill sponsor and Majority Leader William Horne could also not resist taking a dig at New Jersey, due to pass online gambling regulations allowing online poker and casino intrastate – within state borders – on or after 26 February. “They should be accustomed to following Nevada”, said Horne.
A proposed “bad actor clause” in Horne’s bill, under which companies involved in providing online gambling to US customer post-31 December 2006 would be precluded from licensing in Nevada for 10 years, was reduced to five.
The clause, aimed at preventing experienced online operators with US player data from gaining first-mover advantage over Nevada’s bricks ‘n’ mortar casinos taking their first steps into the online poker space, blocks global leader PokerStars from licensing in Nevada until 2018. The poker giant is focusing its licensing efforts in New Jersey, where it is seeking to buy the Atlantic Club casino, one of the entities in line to receive a licence there.
Pete Ernaut of the Nevada Resort Association was quoted by the LVRJ as informing a joint Assembly and Senate Judiciary committee hearing earlier that day that the bill would allow Nevada to offer its “mature regulatory infrastructure” to states such as California and Texas, which “have the players.”
Nevada has less than three million inhabitants, with an adult population incapable of sustaining a viable intrastate poker business among the 13 companies already licensed as operators by the Silver State, with more in the pipeline. California however, yet to pass legislation, does not have the same reciprocal need as Nevada to enter compacts, its 38 million-strong population being more capable of supporting an intrastate online poker system.
Horne’s proposed increases in licensing fees were also reduced under pressure from Sandoval, the initial fee of US$1m being cut to US$500,000, although the Nevada Gaming Commission has the discretion to increase this up to US$1m or down to US$150,000 in order to remain competitive with the fees charged by other US regulators.
Article written by Stephen Carter
