Almost a year after receiving its license to operate intrastate online poker games in the state of Nevada, South Point Poker LLC appears to be close to launch. No exact launch date has been announced, but signs are pointing to positive movement in the near future.
On August 23rd, 2012, South Point made history when it became the very first company to be granted an online poker license in the United States after a three-member panel of the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) approved its application unanimously. Reno-based Monarch Interactive also received approval that day, as did Global Cash Access Inc., which will be a payment services provider, but it was South Point that garnered all the attention.
A month earlier, South Point chief executive Michael Gaughan expressed excitement tinged with humility in an interview with eGaming Review Magazine, saying, “I may not be the biggest or the best, but hopefully I’ll have a head start by two or three months.”
That head start never come to fruition, though, as South Point has still not launched its product, while the Station Casinos-owned Ultimate Poker has been running since the end of April 2013. The problems stem from an unusually long delay in the independent testing process. South Point opted to develop its own poker platform rather than partner with a company that already had an established product. In the previously mentioned interview, Gaughan said the software was in the second wave of independent testing; there was no indication that it would not pass.
“We feel we could launch today,” Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Vaughan told VegasInc.com in October. “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.”
At that point, South Point estimated that the poker room would go live by the end of 2012.
Things have generally been silent on the South Point front since then, but in recent weeks, it looks like preparations are being made for a launch. Patrons of South Point Casino have been given the opportunity to sign up for the new online poker room, which has been re-branded to Real Gaming. Additionally, according to numerous reports, the company has every intention of meeting its new deadline of August 1st to complete its independent testing.
South Point currently has a play money online poker room, but that will be phased out when Real Gaming launches.