Nevada could move beyond online poker
October 5, 2012
Mark
Lipparelli, the recently departed chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board,
reminded attendees at the iGaming Congress here that Nevada is positioned to
move beyond online poker as states elsewhere in the country expand the
definition what constitutes legal online gaming.
“One
thing that often gets mentioned about Nevada is that it will only offer online
poker; actually, Nevada’s law contemplates all forms of gaming beyond poker,”
said Lipparelli, who was careful to state his comments were his and his alone,
noting that that he was speaking as a former chairman, but that he had made the
same comments as chairman. “It’s not just a poker-only market. The rule-making
for other forms of gaming online would have to take place before our Gaming
Commission, but no further statutory language needs to be passed. The primary
emphasis of focusing on poker in Nevada was respecting what at the time was
momentum at the federal level regarding online poker and the likelihood that we
might see some kind of passage of federal legislation that would probably limit
online gaming to poker only. To the extent things remain the way they are and
states begin passing their own laws allowing for different forms of online
gaming, which has already started, for example in Minnesota. My sense is that
Nevada and many other states will move toward different forms of gaming.”
Lipparelli
sees as many of five states legalizing online gaming in the next 12 to 18
months, and, looking out four years, 10 or 15 states legalizing some form of Web
wagering. “There’s very little doubt in my mind that if the federal legislation
doesn’t move, and it certainly seems to be jammed up now, that you will see
passage in a number of states and we’ll see a state-to-state rollout.”
Lipparelli
also said that “seven or eight” licenses had been issued by Nevada to
operators, manufacturers and service providers. The next step in that process
will likely be manufacturers with interactive systems submitting their
technology to independent test labs that will provide results to the state’s
Technology Division for approval. The operators themselves will have to submit
a plan of operation to the Board and those will be the final couple of steps
for someone to operate an online system in Nevada, which could happen late this
year or in the first quarter of next year.
In addition, at last check there were still an additional 35
applications that were in the Board’s queue; Lipparelli said the processing of
these applications will take place over the next six or seven months.
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