Caesars Receives Preliminary Approval for WSOP Online Poker Rooms in Nevada
Showing once again that online poker seems to be full speed ahead in Nevada, last week Caesars Entertainment Corporation was granted a preliminary license to operate a poker site by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
The site, which is to be operated in partnership between Caesars and 888 Holdings, a major European operator online gambling company, will be World Series of Poker branded. Caesars and 888 already legally operate WSOP poker rooms in regulated markets outside the United States .
With the tentative green lighting of Caesars, the list of companies granted licenses to operate poker rooms in Nevada now numbers an even dozen. So far many of the big Las Vegas casino players and a few lesser-known operators have been given the go-ahead to offer real money online poker games in the Silver State, including such heavyweights as:
Boyd Gaming
Wynn Resorts Limited (Wynn Las Vegas)
GNLV Corp. (Golden Nugget), MGM Resorts Online, LLC
South Point Poker, LLC
LV Gaming Ventures (M Resort)
Monarch Casino
ACEP Interactive LLC
Fertitta Interactive, LLC / Station Casinos LLC
Though still not fully approved by the state, Caesars is expected to be granted the license at a formal board hearing coming up on the 20th of this month. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 888 will also need to be licensed to operate in conjunction with Caesars, which Mitch Garber, Caesars Interactive Chief Executive Officer, expects will happen in the spring.
Speaking as to when customers in Nevada might be able to actually begin playing at a WSOP online poker site, Garber did not offer a concrete date but instead said, “We’ll be ready once the licenses allow us to do that.”
Despite the rapid issuing of licenses, none of the approved companies have offered a firm date for when they plan to roll out games to Nevada players. This is likely due to the continued uncertainty surrounding online poker regulation at the federal level. Though the draft of a bill to regulate the game while strengthening prohibitions against other forms of online gambling, known as the Reid/Kyl bill, remains alive in the Senate, time is ticking as the end of the lame duck session looms and online poker players’ collective hopes dim.
Should regulation pass at the federal level, it will likely occur as a result of online poker being “tacked on” to more critical legislation, just as the UIGEA – the law that eventually led to Full Tilt Poker’s temporary closing – was back in 2006.
And, should regulation pass at the federal level, the epicenter of the industry will be in Nevada, with its decades-long track record of regulating land-based casinos and its proliferation of gambling-related support companies. Once the matter of online poker is decided, one way or the other, at the federal level, we should see the operators who’ve already been granted licenses racing each other to be the first to offer games to Nevadans.
