Nevada is known as the center of global land casino gambling.
It has become the latest American state to introduce legislation
that would permit a regulated regime of online poker.
California, Florida and Iowa are the other American states that
have introduced similar bills in their legislatures. Till some
time ago New Jersey was being touted as possibly the first
American state to legalize online poker sites. But with the
governor vetoing the bill that dream is on hold.
The Bill AB258 was introduced on Friday March 11 in the Nevada Assembly by William Horne. Horne is the Democratic incumbent from State Assembly District 34 that covers Southern Nevada. There are two very interesting features in the bill. It recognizes offshore licensing jurisdictions that impose similar licensing requirements. Therefore the licensing authority may issue a license to operate online poker sites to a person or an affiliate of a person who has been licensed to operate online poker sites by another similar jurisdiction. The caveat to this condition is that the applicant must have operated an online poker site at the offshore jurisdiction for two years.
The other feature will bring relief for many potential applicants, and was possibly included at their instance. The licensing authority cannot deny an applicant a license to operate an online poker site just because that applicant has had commercial associations with operators in other jurisdictions in the past. “The bill opens up the possibility of partnerships between established Nevada casinos and major offshore poker operators,” said Jeff Ifrah, a Washington-based attorney who represents both PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com. In fact, the largest land casino company Caesars Interactive Entertainment is on the verge of forming a deal with the online poker software provider Dragonfish for its UK based online poker site WSOP Online. The Nevada, bill if passed, will not prevent Caesars from applying for a license to operate an online poker site in Nevada.
Ifrah also stated in an interview after the bill was introduced, that the bill would not have been introduced if it did not have a chance of succeeding, and if it did not have the support of the land-based casinos. He suggested that the land-based casinos have come to terms that online poker sites are here to stay and are therefore backing the bill.