Nevada legislators consider regulating intrastate online poker

Nevada state lawmakers will soon be discussing the merits of intrastate online poker.

According to a report in the Las Vegas Sun, Assembly Minority Whip William Horne will be introducing a bill that would license and regulate the online poker industry soon.

If the bill is submitted for consideration, Nevada would become the fifth state in the U.S. to consider regulating online gaming in 2011. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently vetoed a bill that would have regulated online poker and casino games, while state legislators in California, Florida and Iowa are considering bills that would regulate Internet poker.

The draft bill in Nevada, obtained from the Las Vegas Sun's Web site, is easily the most friendly to Internet poker operators that currently allow U.S. citizens to play real-money games on their sites.

"The Board shall not recommend denial of, and the (Nevada Gaming) Commission shall not deny, a license to an operator of Internet Poker … solely because the operator … before the effective date of this act, operates, operated or was associated with … one or more Internet poker operations which were unlicensed in the United States or the State of Nevada," the draft reads. The bill would also require operators to have "successfully operated Internet poker pursuant to such a license for at least 2 years before the date on which the application for the license is submitted."

In the same story, the Las Vegas Sun also reports that the bill is being pushed by former Speaker Richard Perkins, who "represents PokerStars.net."

The draft bill would allow licensees in Nevada to pool players from other jurisdictions (i.e., states) that "do not prohibit" Internet poker.

The bill, as it reads, will likely face major opposition from the powerful land-based gaming lobby. Lobbying efforts from major land-based casinos likely played a role in Christie's decision to veto the legislation in New Jersey.

Caesars has been leading the charge to regulate online gaming at the federal level, and has opposed efforts to license and regulate intrastate online gaming.

Last December, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attempted to pass a bill that would have licensed and regulated Internet poker during the 2010 lame duck session of Congress. That bill, which failed to materialize, was much more favorable to large U.S. gaming corporations, as it required a blackout period for operators who have allowed players in the U.S. to make wagers on their sites.