The Nevada Gaming Control Board has created the first draft of a bill, setting out regulations that would control intrastate interactive gaming. This announcement comes after California’s move to leave its intrastate bill until 2012 and Phil Hellmouth’s comments concerning district-only online gaming as put forward by Washington D.C.
The Bill
The New Regulation 5A framework focuses on issues concerning licensing, internal controls, application requirements, rules for self-exclusion, dispute resolution, and registration layout. Other amendments have been made, but these were only due to the need to add language that was specific to Internet gambling.
Some of the items are:
• The age at which an individual can legally gamble online is to be 21.
• In order to pay for compliance investigations, licensees will need to maintain a $20,000 revolving fund.
• At a given operator, a player can only use one account and has to use his or her real name.
• To deposit funds, a player may use a credit card.
• Players are not allowed to take part in inter-account transfers.
• The operator is bound to keep hand histories for five years.
• Operators are expected to put measures in place to prevent bots from being used in games.
Although no provision has been put in the regulations, which says that online gambling would only be confined within Nevada, it can be assumed that this is the situation. However, this would not be the case if the federal government puts out a legislation stating that Internet gambling is legal throughout the nation.
On 26th September, a regulatory workshop will take place that will be open to the public. In this workshop, people will be able to put forward their own revisions.
Current Support
“The technology supporting (Internet poker), while not perfect, has improved dramatically since its introduction,” Mark Lipparelii, the Gaming Control Board Chairman, said. “Similar to our land-based requirements, Nevada will establish high standards, giving players as much confidence as possible in the entities and technologies that might eventually gain approval.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee in Nevada passed Assembly Bill 258 in May, which meant that the Nevada Gaming Commission was able to develop an online gaming regulatory framework. A follow-up to this can be seen in the New Regulation 5A.
Intrastate Regulations
A number of states, which includes California, have been working to draw up bills for intrastate Internet gaming. This has been done to ensure that their state governments receive an influx of revenue. Although the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act 2006 was aimed at stopping money moving between the United States and online poker rooms based abroad, thereby slowing down online gambling, the legislation does provide a state the option to legalize and draw up regulations for online gambling within their own borders.
However, Phil Hellmouth saw this as a major issue regarding intra-district plans drawn up by Washington D.C., concerning Internet gaming. He put forward that due to the fact there will not be enough people available to play, many tables will be left empty.