Boyd and Fertitta on GCB agenda
Golden Nugget will also go before Nevada State Gaming Control Board as all three bid for online poker operator licences.
Boyd Interactive, Fertitta Interactive and Golden Nugget have become the latest licence applicants to be added to the Nevada State Gaming Control Board (GCB) agenda.
All three have applied for online poker operator licences and will see their applications go before the GCB on 3-4 October. It will be the first meeting of the regulatory board to be held without the involvement of Mark Lipparelli after the chairman announced his decision to step down from the role at the end of this month.
While the application from Golden Nugget is for operator status only, Boyd and Fertitta Intertactive are also pursuing licensure as service providers in the Silver State.
Boyd’s application followed a deal signed last year with London-listed operator bwin.party, which would see it acquire a 10% stake in a proposed new company offering US-facing online poker under bwin.party’s existing brands. It simultaneously reached a 15-year agreement to use its partner’s technology platform to offer online poker to a US audience (regulation permitting) under a brand of its own.
Fertitta Interactive’s application was initially submitted in February this year, and in the intervening period it has formally launched Ultimate Gaming, a real-money and social gaming brand which has released the freeplay Facebook app Ultimate Poker.
The third applicant, Golden Nugget, has also launched a freeplay offering in recent months, going live on Bally Technologies’ igaming platform after signing a deal with the platform’s previous owner Chiligaming in February.
Bally itself is already licensed in Nevada, having been among the first wave of companies to receive service provider accreditation in June this year.
So far only three operator licences have been awarded by the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC), with last week’s approval for American Casino Entertainment Properties (ACEP) seeing the Stratosphere owner join Monarch Interactive and South Point Poker in being given the green light to offer online poker in the jurisdiction.
A further seven companies have been awarded licences of other varieties, including the first Nevada-licensed poker marketing affiliate PokerTrip Enterprises.