Nevada gaming officials are moving to eliminate any negative impact on the state’s number one industry that might result from the rapidly accelerating impact of technology on casino games.
Private testing companies such as Gaming Laboratories International will be used beginning this year to help speed the approval process that is necessary for new games involving Internet-related technology, which casinos want to make available as soon as rules allow.
No one wants to wait any longer than is absolutely necessary for the testing and approval processes to run their course.
Gaming Control Board head Mark Lipparelli tells GamingToday 15 companies have filed applications to operate or supply Internet-related technology. The first licenses allowing Internet poker within Nevada’s borders may be issued by late spring or this summer but Lipparelli does not expect any of the websites to be in operation before late in the year as the systems of each operator go through the required tests.
Lipparelli declined to speculate about which of the 15 or so companies may be first in line to get an Internet license later this year, explaining it’s impossible to say at this point how quickly companies will respond to the questions from the Board’s investigation division.
Casino industry officials have been pressing for changes in the regulatory process that would speed the arrival of new technology and the games this technology makes possible.
Lipparelli said the decision to outsource testing to companies such as the respected GLI and perhaps another company or two is intended to keep Nevada on the cutting edge, so to speak, in terms of its ability to respond to a changing landscape.
The chairman concedes there was a time several years ago when the process appeared to be slowing down and the state lab was not moving new equipment through the approval process as quickly as manufacturers and casinos wanted.
"That’s not been a problem recently," Lipparelli says, "but the changes we are putting in place are a result of the Board looking. We want to have a system that responds as quickly as possible to the needs of the industry."
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