Dave Schwartz, the director of the University of Las Vegas’s Gaming Research Center, told local publication 8newsnow this week that legalised online poker in Nevada could be good news for land operators.
Schwarz said that experience has shown that online players develop a taste for the game that takes them to live environments and poker rooms.
“In the 2000’s when online poker first became really big, there’s a funny thing that happened, in Nevada the revenue in poker rooms tripled so more people online meant more people wanted to come to Las Vegas to play poker here,” Schwartz said.
Talking to the publication about the launch of the second legalised Nevada online poker site, WSOP.com, Caesars spokesman Seth Palansky said that even though punters are playing online, his company is still going to try and get them to come into the casinos.
“World Series of Poker has always tried to connect digitally with consumers, this is really the first time ever you’ll be able to do so for real money and win real seats in the land based World Series of Poker,” Palansky said. “You can earn online and transfer that to offline goods, for rooms nights, for show tickets, for free food, that kind of stuff.”
Palansky emphasised that there are safeguards in place to make sure this rigorously regulated style of gambling is being played by the right people.
“We’ll have social security cards, required ID checks, location triangulation where we verify your location to make sure you, are in the borders of Nevada,” Palansky said.
Gaming experts told 8newsnow that Nevada will likely stay on top when it comes to poker online, with other resorts like Treasure Island and MGM expected to unveil their online gaming platforms soon.
World Series of Poker officials said online gaming is less intimidating than traditional casinos as the stakes can be lower; some games start as low as one or two cents.