Beyond VEGAS INC
Richard N. Velotta
VEGAS INC Coverage
For months, we’ve been making the case for online gambling. In a week, the state will take the next step toward making it happen.
On September 26, the state Gaming Control Board will have a workshop meeting to discuss the first draft of regulations for online poker. It starts at 1 p.m., if you want to show up at the Sawyer State Office Building on Washington Avenue to add your two cents’ worth.
The workshop meeting is a chance to hash out the details of what the regulation will say. Once a version of the regulation is in place, the Control Board votes on it and passes it on to the Nevada Gaming Commission, the public–policy side of the state’s two-tiered regulatory system.
The commission will conduct public hearings, tweak the regulation and put it to a final vote. Regulators are projecting i-Gaming rules to be approved by December.
After that, one more thing needs to happen: Big Brother in Washington has to give states permission to regulate online poker.
If this all seems a little backward it’s because, yeah, it is.
One might think it would be best for the feds to give their blessing to online poker before anybody starts writing rules. But Nevada is engaged in a high-stakes competition with other gaming jurisdictions to be ready the minute states are given the OK to play.
Presumably, the first state that has a regulatory process in place will be the first place that prospective licensees will go to get their product operational.
Federal lawmakers have said Nevada and New Jersey are the most likely places to start the online party.
Regulation 5A is a 12-page document that sets the framework for what’s being termed “interactive gaming.” Like most regs, it spells out licensing and applications, internal controls, record-keeping, wagers that are prohibited, resolving player disputes, fees, calculating gross gaming revenue and penalties for breaking the rules.
The workshop meeting will be the first opportunity to see how the industry responds, but all indications are that it’s just hungry to get started.
Why is interactive gaming so important to Nevada? Nevada Gaming Commissioner Randolph Townsend spoke on the issue at a recent workshop presented by UNLV’s Boyd School of Law and Las Vegas’ Lionel Sawyer Collins law firm.
To interest the next generation of casino players, the state has to be on the cutting edge of technology, he said.
“It’s not about green felt anymore,” he said. “It’s not about dealing cards anymore. It’s not even about slot machines anymore. It’s about technology.”
He said the new Vegas visitor comes for the tech-heavy nightclubs.
“If we want to capture them as potential gaming participants, we better do it through technology because they don’t care about that billion-dollar casino floor,” he said. “They’re just not interested.”
Townsend referenced another aspect of technology that, in fact, will be discussed at a September 22 commission meeting. Regulators will consider a regulation that would enable properties to offer customers the ability to gamble from their hotel rooms with mobile gaming technology, a policy that was unheard of a decade ago.
At the root of that proposal are rules that licensees would have to prove to regulators that they have technological safeguards in place to prevent underage gambling.
Townsend is a firm believer that technology will help the industry, not pillage it.
“We have to understand that this technology opportunity grows the market,” he said. “The public knows my brand and gaming companies have relationships with international Internet companies, and they’re going to grow their brand through the Internet. Once they have a new customer on the Internet, hopefully they’re going to get them to visit them here in Nevada.”
That, he said, is the job of the industry. His job, as a regulator, is to assure the public that the games are fair.
“When it comes to Internet gaming, the same thing has to be said. Is the game fair? Are you being treated fairly? And if you win, will you get paid? We have to make sure that when the player walks in the door or goes online that that game is fair.”