Potentially seeing that citizens of their own state weren’t going to be enough to persuade investment in the industry (and other potential issues), the Nevada Legislature and Governor Brian Sandoval rushed a measure through the Nevada General Assembly today that will allow licensees of the state’s online poker operation to enter into compacts with other states. This sets the course for an interstate gaming system in the United States, although not an international one at this point.
According to Anjeanette Damon and Andrew Doughman of the Las Vegas Sun, the legislation was one of the quickest pieces of legislation to pass before any political body as of late. After only a 90-minute hearing this morning, the two houses of the Nevada legislature unanimously voted for Assembly Bill 114 and, this afternoon, Governor Sandoval signed the bill into law. To say the bill was “fast tracked” might be an understatement; all totaled, the actions in Nevada took only seven hours.
“This is a historic day,” Damon and Doughman quote Sandoval as saying before signing the law into effect in the old Assembly chambers, where Nevada first legalized gambling in 1931. “This is the day we usher Nevada into the next frontier of gaming.”
This isn’t to say there weren’t some roadblocks along the way, however. Earlier this week, Assembly Majority Leader William Horne attempted to put a clause in the (at that time) proposed legislation that would have raised the fees for an online poker license to $1 million, up from its previously passed $500,000 level. After discussion with other members of the legislature, Horne compromised on his position, allowing the license to stay at $500,000, but to be increased in “certain circumstances” or even lowered on a case-by-case basis.
Under the old law in Nevada, passed just last spring, online poker would have been an intra-state affair. The language of the law stated that, at the time, the state would wait for the federal government to authorize and regulate an inter-state system. When the potential for that regulation failed late last year, Nevada’s elected officials decided it was time to move forward with their own plans to create inter-state compacts without the blessing of the federal government.
To do that, however, the not-even year-old law had to be amended. Hence, the reason for the quickness of today’s vote and its signage into law by Governor Sandoval.
The passage of the new legislation in Nevada is significant in that it will allow the state to aggressively approach other states to offer online poker. Although Nevada has issued several licenses to operators, software providers and the like since the passage of their online poker law in 2012, no site has yet to come online. The reason for this is simple: with their 6 million-plus residents, the intra-state poker angle would have a very small market and might not be interesting to the online gaming industry.
By opening the avenue to inter-state poker, Nevada has cleared that hurdle but also set it up for other potential issues. At this time, only Delaware (population: 900,000) has passed legislation for online gaming. There are currently rumors abounding that New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie, who conditionally vetoed a full online gaming law in his state earlier this month, will sign the next bill that comes his way if it contains the changes that he asked for. It is possible that New Jersey could enter the game as early as next week, pending passage of the law in the state.
Even with both Delaware and New Jersey (population: 8 million-plus), there are problems that would face Nevada. In Delaware and potentially New Jersey, the laws are for full casino gaming online, while Nevada only offers online poker. In New Jersey, the laws clearly state that all gaming must originate from Atlantic City; while that is something that Nevada can’t worry about, it might prevent New Jersey from entering into any deals with them.
Finally, add the three states together and there is a population of around 15 million people. In France, with its 65 million people, the regulatory body ARJEL has recognized the necessity to allow its players to play internationally, rather than on their “nation specific” sites. If other states do not pass online gaming or poker legislation, there still would be the potential problem of not enough players to make it worthwhile for companies to enter into the market.
The passage of the amended law in Nevada is a reason to celebrate, however. The glacial movement of the rebirth of online poker in the United States may be coming closer, although it may never come close to the “Golden Age” of the game in the early to mid-2000s.