Nevada Moves Forward with Online Poker Regulations

According to reports, the plan to set up a regulatory framework for online poker in Nevada is going according to plan, with a recent meeting revealing very few concerns or objections to the plan, named Regulation 5A.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board held a meeting – known as a public regulatory workshop – on Monday that allowed them to answer questions and take suggestions for possible revisions to the proposed regulations. The meeting lasted about 75 minutes, and produced few concerns from those in attendance.

The regulations, as they stand now, would not immediately begin a licensing program in Nevada. Instead, the plan is to have regulations in place so that Nevada could immediately begin offering licenses for online poker operators should the federal government pass legislation that allows online poker in the United States, or if the Department of Justice were to determine that the operation of online poker sites was expressly legal in the USA. By setting up the regulations early, Nevada lawmakers hope that they can have a competitive advantage if the USA is opened up to online poker licensing.

While the regulations are still a work in progress, some details have already begun to surface. For instance, poker sites would be subject to a minimum online gambling age of 21, which matches the higher age limit commonly enforced in most US states. Players would only be allowed to have one account at each poker site, and player-to-player transfers would not be allowed. Credit cards would be an acceptable deposit method.

There are also several regulations designed to help keep customers safe from potential fraud. Site operators would have to take steps to prevent the use of bots in poker rooms, and they would be required to hold onto hand histories for a minimum of five years to aid in investigations.

While many other states have investigated allowing intra-state online poker, Nevada’s plan is geared at taking advantage of potential laws that would allow operators to target the entire United States, and possibly even worldwide markets. At the moment, there are no national structures for online poker regulation in the United States.