Nevada Moves to Regulate Land Casino Ties to Online Gambling
Reports are circulating that the Nevada Gaming Control Board is considering rules to impose on casino operators in the state vis-a-vis their relationship to online gambling sites. According to GamingWire, board members want to establish policies for licensees who previously were not restricted in their overseas Internet gaming ventures."Some gaming licensees play carefully by the rules and others do not," said Randall Sayre of the Gaming Board. "We don't have a policy and clearly the board needs to boil down exactly what that policy needs to be."
Some of the issues that may be raised in crafting the rules include the use of .net sites to mirror .com sites, with free play at the first used as a lure to gambling at the second. Television ads for the free sites are common, as the sites are not technically casino pages.
Advertising itself is another concern for the regulators. Strict rules on what is permissible for the land-based casinos does not automatically apply to Internet gambling.
Members of the gaming industry were non-committal about the possibility of tighter controls on online gaming associations. A spokesman for Harrah's, a company invested in developing online gambling operations, said any comment would be speculative until actual procedures are released.
Frank Shreck, an attorney who frequently represents casino operators, said delineating the lines might actually help the gaming industry.
"There is a lot of confusion right now in the industry and there needs to be some regulatory guidelines," Schreck said. "All we're asking is to tell us what is permissible."
