Nevada Governor in Interstate Poker Talks

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval has recently confirmed that the state has began talks with other interested state Governors regarding the forming of interstate Online Poker compacts. Sandoval pushed through the legalization of online poker pretty hurriedly in February as soon as it became clear the New Jersey was about to do the same thing. The legalization of online poker and allowing players from just the one small state to play against each other although great for the players, is pretty meaningless when it comes to creating revenue for both the state and the company providing the service. This comes down to the plain fact that Nevada as a pretty small state simply cannot provide the liquidity required to create large prize pools or cash games that generate any serious rake.

There has been no mention of which state Governor Sandoval is talking to, and when talking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal he said that he had, "talked with a few Governors," and that, "It's very much in the early stages and we have a great opportunity because we have the infrastructure and other states have the players, I'm hopeful we'll continue to talk." When talking about the first site in the state to be offering online poker, Ultimate Poker, Sandoval said that Nevada is "already ahead of other markets" with players "signing up from all over the world". This will not however excite poker players as signing up can indeed be done by players from anywhere in the world but playing poker and contributing to tournament pools and cash tables cannot be done by players outside of Nevada. Sandoval also commented on the fact that it did take a while to get the first site up and running, however he stressed that the Gaming Control Board had to do a thorough job and that, "Over time, people will forget about that part and see how successful it will become."

Many online poker players enjoy large tournaments and player liquidity at the offshore poker rooms such as Americas Cardroom. ACR welcomes players from the US and the rest of the world with liquidity never being a problem.