It is not the mainstream sponsorship that would be huge for an online poker site, but Nevada’s Real Gaming, the online poker presence of the South Point Casino, announced Monday that it has indirectly partnered with two popular brick-and-mortar retailers to give its players more options with which to fund their accounts.
Real Gaming customers can now deposit funds into their poker accounts at any 7-Eleven or Family Dollar store in the state using the PayNearMe cash transaction network. PayNearMe is a way for people to make payments to companies using just cash, rather than needing a credit card or requiring the sharing of bank account information. According to the PayNearMe and RealGaming.com websites, it is a fairly simple process. Real Gaming players must logon to their poker accounts and select the “Deposit at 7-11” option (again, Family Dollar stores are in the network, as well). The player will then receive a barcode that can be printed or displayed on a smartphone. That payment slip will then be scanned by a cashier at a PayNearMe location, who will take the player’s cash, let Real Gaming know that the payment has been made, and give the player a receipt.
So while Real Gaming tables won’t be emblazoned with 7-Eleven logos and Family Dollar isn’t about to put up signs for the online poker room, the association with these traditional retailers may at least provide Real Gaming with a bit more exposure and lend some air of legitimacy to a type of business that some people still see as sketchy.
It also give players hundreds of in-person locations at which to deposit and the easier it is for someone to get funds onto the site, the better.
Currently, PokerScout.com reports Real Gaming as having virtually zero cash game players, which not surprisingly puts it a distant third in the Nevada online poker market. Though Real Gaming was the third of the three poker rooms to open in Nevada (the others being Ultimate Poker and WSOP.com), South Point did make history when, on August 23rd, 2012, it became the first company to be issued an online poker in the United States. It had grand plans – it was developing its own poker software and fully expected to be the first to market. South Point CEO Michael Gaughan said at the time, “I may not be the biggest or the best, but hopefully I’ll have a head start by two or three months.”
But independent testing delays kept pushing South Point Poker’s launch date back and back and back again. “We feel we could launch today, said Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Vaughan in October 2012. “But you’ve got to go through the independent testing labs, you have to satisfy the State Gaming Control Board and because we are the first, we’re going to be under the microscope. They’re going to prod us every which way, and that’s good. We don’t want to come out and fall flat on our face and be an embarrassment for Nevada.”
Things were quiet for a long period after the initial series of delays, but last summer, South Point rebranded its poker site to Real Gaming and gave players the opportunity for advanced signup. Finally, in February of this year, Real Gaming launched, a year and a half after it received its license.