Mark Lipparelli, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, has confirmed operators that have been approved may start offering real-money services before the turn of the year. During an interview, Lipparelli established that operators with licences and approved technical systems could offer intra-state online poker some time before the end of 2012.
“The process from here will see licence applicants appearing on our public agendas in May/June. For the successful licence applicants, the last step in turning the systems on will be a technical evaluation, and although we’re not certain how long this process will take, it’s plausible, even likely, that you’ll see the first set of systems approved for initial deployment by the fall,” Lipparelli told iGB.
Lipparelli expects technical evaluation for those filing applications to take place at some point during the Spring/Summer months. He’s confident licensees that were “thoughtful about their approach and had their systems reviewed by test labs in the past” will be up and running “by late fall and certainly by late winter or the early part of 2013.”
Over in New Jersey, Dave Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, was cagey when pushed for a timescale on their online gaming industry plans. In an interview with Press of Atlantic City he agreed Nevada is “a little ahead” whilst admitting the process won’t take a “long time” in New Jersey.
“The biggest question that probably has to be addressed right now is the question of the constitutional referendum, whether one is needed or not. There are legal arguments that a referendum is not needed because the Internet wagering would be hosted only in the Atlantic City casinos,” Rebuck added.
