New Nevada law would allow interstate poker
Legislation could boost player liquidity while federal regulation is off the agenda.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) chairman AG Burnett has today claimed it is “paramount” that State Governor Brian Sandoval can choose whether to allow Nevada to take wagers from other states.
The GCB submitted a draft bill to the state legislature last month proposing the legalisation of bets taken from other states that have regulated egaming.
With a total population of little more than 2.7 million, there is limited scope for high liquidity in the Nevada intrastate poker market, but the ability to enter compacts with other states could help to significantly boost player numbers.
Burnett, who has also called for “federal acceptance” of online poker, argued that Assembly Bill 5 could be important for Nevada especially given that federal online poker is not currently under consideration after Senator Harry Reid failed to introduce his bill in Congress during the lame duck session.
He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “The need to make clear the governor’s ability, should he choose, to negotiate such agreements, was paramount. I don’t know if there are specific negotiations right now.
“We wanted to make sure the authority was there, however, to add more options in order to help the state,” he added.
Under Nevada’s current online gambling regulations there is no provision to allow the Silver State to enter into compacts with other states, something which was included in Delaware’s legislation, signed into law in June last year.
The new bill proposes that any operator looking to take wagers in more than one state must hold an egaming licence in each affected state, with the punishment for failing to comply stipulated as “imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than one year and a maximum term of not more than 10 years or by a fine of not more than $50,000, or both”.