NV Governor Sandoval Has Explored Compact with Delaware

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Tuesday, November 12th, 2013 | Written by Lucy Brown

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that the governor of the first state in the United States to regulate some form of online betting, Nevada, has explored the possibility of entering into an interstate iGaming agreement with the second state to pass such legislation, Delaware.

Nevada and Delaware were also numbers one and two in terms of the opening of real money online gambling web sites.

In Nevada, where the game of online poker is the only one currently allowed under state law, the first site, Ultimate Poker, launched in late April of this year. The second, Caesars-run WSOP.com, went live at the end of September.

In Delaware, a broader variety of games are on offer, with sites having gone live in a test mode on October 31. The full launch is set to take place in the near future, possibly as soon as this week.

Special law allows Governor to negotiate agreements

Earlier this year, Nevada lawmakers passed a law that allows the state’s governor, Brian Sandoval, himself a former head of the Nevada Gaming Commission, to enter into interstate online gambling compacts with other states that have also passed similar legislation.

So far, in addition to Delaware, the only other state to have done so is New Jersey, where real money online gambling sites will get underway in a soft launch mode on November 21.

The soft launch mode is, as in Delaware, a testing period during which time only invited players will be allowed to access the betting sites while the platforms are thoroughly vetted ahead of the full scale launch, scheduled for exactly two weeks from today, November 26.

While Sandoval confirmed with the Sun that he has been in talks with Delaware officials regarding a compact, he said that such an agreement is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“Delaware is the only one that has gone live that would be a candidate,” Sandoval was quoted by the paper.

He went on to remark that in the case of Delaware’s iGaming market, which is overseen by the Delaware State Lottery, “time to see what their experience is going to be” is necessary.

Delaware and Nevada represent small markets due to small populations

As it appears likely that regulation of real money online poker in the United States – and the legalization of other forms of Internet-based wagering – is going to happen over a number of years and on a state by state basis, the cementation of interstate iGaming compacts will likely prove to be a key component of the nascent industry.

Both Nevada and Delaware are small states in terms of population, with neither able to provide a large player base to ensure well-populated games at all hours of the day. When compared with worldwide markets, such as thriving UK online poker rooms and other Europe-facing real money poker sites, the markets in Nevada and Delaware – and the would-be markets in many other U.S. states – are miniscule.

It has been reported this week that at peak time in Delaware, only about two dozen players are logging in. Interstate compacts could be the ticket to keeping the games exciting and the markets thriving, though it is doubtful that any such compacts will be made before the markets in all three regulated states are somewhat more established.