NGC Requests Public Suggestions Regarding Interstate Online Gambling
The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) has requested the public to provide feedback and suggestions regarding the commission’s role and responsibility while administering interstate online poker compacts in the near future.
Nevada lawmakers introduced an urgent bill to enable Nevada’s online poker operators to accept bets from players outside the state last month. The bill was given top priority and was quickly signed into law, but the NGC still has to define the exact nature of interstate online poker compacts, owing to which the commission has turned to the public.
Last month, Brian Sandoval, the governor of Nevada, approved Assembly Bill 114, thereby giving Nevada-based online poker companies the power to get into interstate online poker agreements without the need to refer to any federal law.
The newly passed law prevents online poker operators who had operated online poker rooms within the US after the federal government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 from applying for a Nevada license for a period of five years. This provision ensures that online poker companies entering into Nevada’s young online poker market don’t have to compete with online poker giants such as PokerStars.
Nevada was in a hurry to pass this bill because it wanted to get ahead of New Jersey, which was on the verge of passing an online gambling bill that would legalize several forms of online gambling while including a provision for the formation of interstate online gaming compacts. Nevada’s new law requires online poker companies to pay a licensing fee of $500,000 although William Horne, the sponsor of the bill, had suggested charging a licensing fee of $1 million. The NGC has the power to lower or raise the licensing fee, but not more than $1 million and no less than $150,000. Online poker companies will have to pay $250,000 to get their licenses renewed.
The NGC is now seeking suggestions from the public, including operators of online gambling businesses. The request for suggestions had appeared on the NGC’s official website and bore the signature of Sally P. Elloyan, the executive secretary of the NGC.
The NGC wants to know from the public what topics it should consider while creating a regulatory framework for interstate online poker compacts. The commission has also posted queries related to revenue sharing and settlement of player disputes, while requesting the public to provide “any other information not requested above that is relevant to regulations for interstate agreements on interactive gaming.” The commission has urged respondents to “be specific and cite any relevant legal support.”
According to gambling law analysts, Nevada is taking small, but sure steps toward becoming an international gambling jurisdiction with the power to issue online gambling licenses to applicants.
Those interested in the issue of interstate online gambling compacts between Nevada and its neighboring states are required to send their feedback or suggestions through fax, snail mail, or email to Elloyan on or before April 12, 2012. The public is required to file reply comments by April 19.
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