South Point Casino Gunning to Have Nevada's First Operational Internet Poker SiteVP of Internet Gaming said company 'well down the road' toward a license |
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South Point Hotel & Casino is looking to have Nevada’s first intrastate real-money online poker site, said Rick Kulis, the company’s Vice President of Internet Gaming.
According to Kulis, South Point Poker, which already exists as a free poker site, is “well down the road” toward obtaining a license to operate.
So far, six entities have applied to participate in the upcoming industry. Like South Point Poker, 888 Holdings — a foreign-based site with an existing relationship with Caesars Entertainment — submitted paperwork in October.
“We hope to move into real-money play as soon as our license is granted,” Kulis added. However, he couldn’t speculate as to which month in 2012 it would happen.
Kulis admitted that being first is a double-edged sword.
“On the one side you have to make sure you get it right from the beginning. You want your players to sign up and play, and have loyalty and continue playing. But also, from a brand-recognition perspective, it’s the same argument we have regarding who was the first in paid TV — HBO, who was the first do a photocopy — Xerox. Those names stick. You want to break through early so you don’t have to catch up with a lot of noise in the market place and differentiate yourself.”
South Point started to prepare for its Internet business about five months ago — right after Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Assembly Bill 258 into law.
Since the summer, Nevada has drafted and finalized regulations for the intrastate industry. The Gaming Commission’s historic decision on Dec. 22 was widely applauded by the casino industry, and put Nevada one step closer to a regulated web poker market.
Just a day later, a surprise move by the U.S. Justice Department clarified the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 to apply only to sports betting. The new position makes an intrastate industry home free and gives Nevada a potential play into eventually offering web poker interstate, according to a handful of Nevada’s top gaming attorneys.
Nevada regulators have consistently said that brick-and-mortars with their own technology will likely move through the licensing phase quicker. Sites that are new to the Silver State and need to partner up with a local gaming company will fall under more scrutiny.
South Point made a business decision based on that fact.
“It became obvious early on that the licensees with their own software that hadn’t been tainted by any previous exposure to the U.S. market was probably going to be the best way to go,” Kulis said. “Also, there was the whole question as to whether you want to be a part of a network or whether you want to have your own software so you can adapt quickly as the market changes. It’s obvious that someone who has their own software has that flexibility to immediately respond.”
This means, according to Kulis, South Point Poker can “migrate” to any legally available jurisdictions with less hiccups than its competitors.
“Nevada has really put this whole issue at the forefront,” Kulis added. “Now that they have adopted the regulations, it gives anybody in the state a chance to get their operations up and wait for whatever the federal solution may be when it comes — if it comes. From there you have various opportunities to do some kind of interaction between states. Nevada has put online poker on the map finally in the United States.”
In an intrastate introduction to online poker, the player pool would be limited to residents and visitors. Kulis said that there would be enough liquidity under such a model, but that Nevada would love to have a state like California “come on board.”
South Point Poker has been successful at attracting players so far, Kulis said. The platform joined up with Zen Gaming as an “intermediate step” to build its brand before gearing up to do Internet poker business independently.
Follow Brian Pempus on Twitter — @brianpempus
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