3 New Companies Recommended for Nevada Real Money Poker License
Three more companies have joined the growing coalition to present online real money poker games to residents in the State of Nevada. MGM Online LLC is joined by boutique firms Cams LLC of Los Angeles and Z4Poker LLC of Las Vegas as the latest gaming companies to be recommended for licensing by the Nevada State Gaming Control Board.
All three companies should find out in the next two weeks if they will be approved for licensing or not. The Nevada Gaming Commission reconvenes on November 15th to review and consider all new applications. Should all three online poker brands be favored, they will join the current list of 13 permitted gaming companies, bringing the total to 16.
When MGM Resorts directors met with the Gaming Control Board to present their request and qualifications for licensing, it was revealed that the company has plans to launch a play-for-free online poker site by March 2013, with a real money poker room to follow once MGM has cleared all regulatory sanctions. MGM already runs a social media gaming website, myVegas, drawing an average of 350,000 visitors each month. The impending free-to-play site would be developed in partnership with Playstudios, the same company that powers myVegas.
As for the real money poker site, MGM Resorts’ executive vice president, general counsel and secretary John McManus expressed their intentions to join MGM and the Boyd Gaming Group into partnership with Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc. Bwin.Party is a top tier provider of real money poker games, as well as online casino games, sports betting, bingo and other gambling amusements.
Already set on a straight and narrow path for Nevada licensing in 2013, Bwin.Party was the result of a 2011 merger between Bwin and Party Gaming, integrating the highly successful technologies and experience of two efficacious real money poker, casino and sports betting networks into one.
The partnership between MGM and Bwin.Party is a straight-forward one. MGM will take on the role of promoter and marketer, handling player acquisitions and retention, as well as all customer support needs. Bwin.Party’s responsibility will lie on the back end of things, maintaining the software, facilitating transactions, basically everything that doesn’t involve direct interaction with the clientele.
The Chairman of the Gaming Control Board, A. G. Burnett, made it clear that the real money poker network’s road to licensing is a long and tedious course. “Bwin.party license application is currently in the process of being investigated. At some point next year, [they will] be on an agenda for final approval.”
Burnett went on to comment on Nevada’s commitment to see a licensed and regulated intrastate online gaming sector come to fruition. In Burnett’s words, the state of Nevada “is embarking on a new course”, one that will, in all likelihood, see the Silver State become the very first in the US to present real money poker games to its residents over the internet.
The 13 real money poker companies to already receive approval for licensing from the Nevada Gaming Commission are (alphabetically): American Casino and Entertainment Properties, Bally Technologies, Boyd Gaming, Fertitta Interactive LLC, Global Cash Access Holdings, Golden Nugget, International Game Technology (IGT), Monarch Interactive, NetEffect Networks, PokerTrip Enterprises, SHFL Entertainment, South Point Poker, and WMS Industries.
