Nevada’s online gambling bill suffered a setback on May 28 when it failed to make its way through the state Senate.
Assembly Bill 578, which had recently been approved by the state assembly, had also earned approval from the Senate judiciary committee on May 21. The Nevada senate was scheduled to vote on the bill on May 25, but due to a legislative backlog, AB 578 was removed from the voting schedule on May 26.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Mark James, who supports the gaming legislation, commented that the bill “was a casualty of the machinations of the legislative process.” The senate is currently dealing with an energy bill, as well as a seniors’ prescription drug bill.
Online gaming law expert, Tony Cabot, doesn’t believe the bill is stuck because of a lack of support. “Every indication we have is that the bill was stalled for reasons unrelated to the merits of the bill.” He also expects that Governor Kenny Guinn will sign off on the bill if and when the legislative bottleneck clears.
Cabot did note, however, that the governor’s signature wasn’t an automatic green light for online gambling in Nevada.
The Nevada Gaming Commission still has to decide whether online gaming can be regulated and whether it is in compliance with U.S. federal regulations. No one will be launching a real money site in Nevada until that happens.
Supporters are determined not to let the bill die, and they will be pushing for a vote during this session of the legislature. But they’re running out of time. The session ends by June 4, and the legislature won’t be sitting another two years. And two years is an eternity in the world of online gambling.
Online Betting Bits
Discouraging Online Gambling Bits
If you’re an Internet gambler and you follow what’s happening in Agen Joker123 Australia, then you know that online gambling services based there are among the best regulated in the world. You may also be aware that the federal government last year imposed a one-year moratorium on the expansion of Internet gambling Down Under and that it used that period to figure out whether prohibition was feasible.
The moratorium ended this month and no decision has been made. The Senate will study the matter further in June and will probably end up passing a ban over the summer. What does all this mean to online gamblers? It means that the world’s safest, most consumer-friendly online gambling services may no longer be operating in a matter of weeks.
Thanks to a very high level of fraud–most of which is on the part of consumers–credit card companies aren’t to hip to customers using their credit cards to gamble online. MasterCard and Visa already have policies in place that make it very difficult for online gambling sites to accept their cards.
Discover Card appears to be following suit, thanks largely to a court ruling in California. A Net bettor there sued the company, along with American Express, after he racked up more than $70,000 in credit card debts using numerous cards. As a result, Discover will no longer allow card holders in California to gamble using their Discover cards.
And because it’s virtually impossible to determine beyond doubt the physical location of Internet users, it’s speculated that the company will disallow all Internet gambling transactions, regardless of whether the card holders in California.
An Encouraging Online Gambling Bit
On the brighter side of online gambling, CryptoLogic’s progressive jackpot system produced another huge winner this week. A Net bettor in Hawaii hit a 176,688 progressive jackpot playing Caribbean Poker at InterCasino. The player, “moosed,” is the second InterCasino customer since March to hit one of the big ones. CryptoLogic’s progressive jackpot system can be accessed at the company’s jackpot portal at JackpotMania.com. The Caribbean Poker jackpot starts off at $100,000 and has already climbed over the $110,000 mark since moosed’s win over the weekend. Also starting at $100,000 is the jackpot for Crypto’s “Rags to Riches” slot machine, which was approaching $190,000 as of last night.
Miscellaneous Online Gambling Bits
Online poker players will want to keep an eye out for new games by CryptoLogic. The software company will team with LasVegasFromHome.com Entertainment to bring new online poker room capabilities to players worldwide. The company hasn’t yet announced where and when the games will be available.
betandwin.com, an Austrian interactive gaming company, recently announced that it will expand into the Italian market through a joint venture with Horizon S.r.l. The new company, betandwin Italia S.p.A, will take over an existing betting business and launch a service that delivers sports betting in Italy nationwide via the telephone and Internet.
Cantor Index Ltd., a company that offers spread betting services over the Internet, recently announced the addition of entertainment-related wagers. The company, through its recent purchase of the Hollywood Stock Exchange, now invites customers to make real-money spread bets on the success of films and actors as well as record sales for popular recording artists.
A Wireless Betting Bit
Coral Eurobet has expanded its wagering services to include new options for bettors using mobile phones. The bookmaker will offer a new service, through a partnership with wireless entertainment company 12Snap, that enables Coral Eurobet customers to place bets using interactive voice recognition systems and then receive confirmations via SMS. The service will also deliver text alerts about sporting events of the individual customer’s choice.
