Internet poker is legal again…but only in Nevada. Yesterday the government in the great state set the first regulations for legal online poker play in the United States – as long as you a playing in Nevada with other people in Nevada.
The Nevada Gaming Commission approved the nation’s first regulations for Internet poker play today, opening the door to the licensing of companies to offer online play within the state.
Play across state lines still wouldn’t be allowed because of restrictions imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This is just the beginning of legal online gambling and should clean up what was a pretty shady business. The first companies on the block for online poker licenses are all large and legitimate businesses:
Six companies already have applications in the regulatory pipeline for licensing: Cantor Gaming, Shuffle Master, International Game Technology, Bally’s Technology, Caesars Entertainment and the South Point.
This was bound to happen. While there were legitimate problems with the companies that were taken down on Black Friday, there may be something to the conspiracy theory that Black Friday was all coordinated by the large gaming companies in the United States.
Look for the online poker licenses to be approved (or denied) in the spring of 2012. In the meantime, I wonder how many online poker players will be moving to Nevada. Living is still cheap.