Nevada May Have Enough of a Player Pool to Support Intrastate Online Poker

Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, David Schwartz, told CardPlayer.com Friday that he believed Nevada would be one of those states that could support legalized online poker at the intrastate level. 

The state is set to begin granting licenses after February 1 with Gambling911.com sponsor, South Point Poker, among those that have already applied.  The South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa is the first Las Vegas establishment to open an online poker room for US customers (currently free but with huge cash prizes and opportunities to win a seat at the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event).

“It’s interesting to note that a lot of the search inquiries for ‘South Point Poker’ to Gambling911.om are coming from the Las Vegas area,” noted Payton O’Brien, who heads up the G911 website. 

Brian Pempus of CardPlayer.com spoke to Professor Schwartz.  

Brian Pempus: With play being restricted to residents and those visiting Nevada, do you think there will be enough of a player pool to have a healthy system?

David Schwartz: I think Nevada is one state where you might. The poker rooms around the city tend to be crowded, and there’s people in them 24/7. You’ve got to figure that some subset of those people who would be going to those poker rooms would be staying at home. I’m not totally sure how many games you would need running to have a go of it, but I’m sure you would have something there. I don’t think you could have a hundred different poker rooms catering to Nevada, but maybe five or six might work.

Those visiting Las Vegas will also be able to play online poker from their hotel rooms, thus enhancing the overall experience as the likelihood of these same individuals showing up in the card room itself is quite high. 

Schwartz doesn’t think they will advertise this concept right off the bat.

He told Card Player:  “I think they will probably slow play it — to use a pun. I don’t think if you’re working in a casino, even if you’re running the poker room — you aren’t going to get far in executive committee, with the hotel folks and especially the [food and beverage] folks, saying, ‘Hey, we are going to pitch people coming to Vegas to stay in the hotel room the whole time.’ I don’t know how far they would go in pitching it, but I think they would make it known that you could [play online poker].”

Schwartz also played down Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson’s announced opposition to any current measures to legalize online poker in Nevada.

“He’s one owner, and there’s a lot of different voices there. I don’t think his opinion invalidates the opinions of other folks — Wynn, Caesars, MGM — who are in favor of it. Obviously if you have an opponent it’s not going to make it easier, but I don’t think it’s insurmountable. If it forces the proponents to take a closer look at the age verification and explain what they are doing, and make a stronger case, in the end I think this is a good thing. I think that ultimately someone will be able to demonstrate age verification to Mr. Adelson’s satisfaction, and he may support it after that.”

Once the industry opens up in Nevada, Schwartz believes other states will be quick to jump into the fray.

“I have to think that once they have [online poker] up and running intrastate, they will just say, ‘Look this is going well, but it could be better if other states could get on it as well.’ Let’s do a simple amendment to the [Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act], that says if it’s going from one state where it’s legal to another state where it is as well, then it’s fine — like horse racing.”

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher