by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Jun 23, 2012 | Updated on Jun 23, 2012It’s official – online poker is coming to Nevada. The Nevada Gaming Control Board agreed to license two operators on Wednesday, giving them the right to offer online poker to residents and visitors in the state.The two licenses were awarded to Bally Technologies and International Game Technology, both of whom submitted their applications in 2011. There are some 30 or more other companies waiting on licenses, and it is expected that many of them will have their applications considered over the summer months.To be clear, players in Nevada – or those considering going there to take advantage of the online poker marketplace – shouldn’t expect to see regulated online poker games anytime soon. While these two licenses do give Bally and IGT the chance to offer online poker games, there are still two major hurdles they’ll need to clear before any such games go live.Both hurdles relate to key parts of Nevada’s regulatory framework for internet gaming. First, the software being provided by these companies must undergo rigorous testing before it can be used in the state. This includes not only the technical aspects in relations to the games and security, but also testing the ability of the operators to block players outside of Nevada from participating.Next, there’s the issue of exactly what the licenses allow these companies to do. In these two cases, the licenses allow Bally and IGT to act as service providers who manufacture, maintain, and run online gaming systems. However, they cannot directly offer such games to players in Nevada. In order to get into the online poker action, they must first partner with a brick-and-mortar casino that’s based on Nevada – either in Las Vegas or in another location, such as Reno. Both companies are said to be seeking such partnerships actively.These two issues mean that the first online poker rooms will likely hit Nevada in the first quarter of 2013, give or take a couple of months. The biggest questions at the moment are how many rooms will be active, and how many rooms a relatively small state can support.
