Nevada Issues First Two Online Gambling Licenses

June 24th, 2012 | 11:19 pm

The state of Nevada has taken a major step towards offering state-regulated online gambling within its borders by issuing licenses to two iGaming companies.

By Matt Kaufman, Rakeback.com Poker News Editor

For months now, Nevada has looked like it would be the first American state to offer and regulate online gambling - including online poker - to the residents of the state.

Although the development of online gambling in every other US state has been dramatically slowed down or put to a complete stop due to political pressures, Nevada has moved very smoothly towards its goal of launching sites in late 2012.

This week, Nevada took a monumental step towards online gambling - it issued its first two licenses.

The recipients of those licenses are Nevada-based iGaming equipment producers Bally Technologies and International Game Technologies (IGT). Both companies are currently industry leaders in the creation of brick & mortar video machines like slots and video poker.

All companies which receive licenses will have to prove that they can meet the gaming regulations that Nevada passed in March. Most notably, this means they need to be able to exclude players outside of the state and players that are not of legal age.

In the near future, Nevada-based casinos will need to receive license of their own. Many of those casinos will then choose to contract Bally or IGT to provide them with the technologies needed to offer internet gambling. The Golden Nugget casino already has a deal in place with Bally, and many similar deals are likely to take place in the coming months.