Monarch Gaming has become the eighth company to apply for a Nevada online poker license, as reported by CardPlayer.com. The company, which operates the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno via Monarch Casino & Resort Inc., becomes only the second applicant (after South Point Poker) to seek a full-fledged operator’s license. The other applicants, including Cantor Gaming, Aristocrat Technologies and IGT, seek only to act as tech providers to the operators who win Nevada’s approval.
Iowa State Sen. Jeff Danielson told the Des Moines Register that his read of the Department of Justice’s pre-Christmas clarification on the applicability of the Wire Act gives Iowa leave to link up with other states who launch intrastate online poker, such as (ahem) Nevada. “We believe that because of the DoJ ruling, we can now have a multi-state compact” similar to the Iowa Lottery’s participation in the 31-state Powerball game. Danielson is working on online poker legislation that he expects to introduce during the current legislative session, although a 2011 poll suggested 73% of Iowans were opposed to online poker coming to their state. As always, the American skittishness regarding online gambling seems to evaporate when horses are involved, evidenced by Iowa’s planned April 1 launch date for wagering on the ponies online via mobile phone technology. But we digress…
Is Danielson correct in his interpretation of what the DoJ’s reinterpretation of the Wire Act really means? For the answer to that and other pressing questions, be sure to tune into “The Wire Act: Why you should pay attention and what this means for gaming in the USA”, a complimentary iGaming Business webinar, presented by none other than Gambling And The Law author Prof. I. Nelson Rose. The webinar happens Wednesday at 4:30-5:30pm GMT (11:30am-12:30pm EST). To register for free, click here. For those of you on North America’s west coast who aren’t early risers, registration will ensure a podcast of the webinar will be waiting in your email in-box. So what do you pot-smoking layabouts have to lose but your ignorance?
