Nevada Deciding on IOUs for Online Players
- by Josef Rantamaki
With Nevada on the point of allowing online gaming, it has to be decided whether players can use markers, or IOUs. It is common in the states’ casinos and many players prefer it to carrying large amounts of cash.
It has been estimated that around 15 per cent of money bets is done by credit and it has generated millions in revenue.
At present credit to online players is banned by Nevada’s regulations but A.G. Burnett, a Gaming Control Board member, thinks this could change. He said there have been no problems with credit in the past and he is reserving the option to amend current regulations if and when required. “If we were to find some comfort in allowing credit to be issued and there was an interest in doing that, we would obviously be amenable to allowing it.”
The Gaming Control Board approved the framework of new regulations last December and is currently refining them. Burnett, a lawyer, wants to ensure allowing online credit is legally sound as the current law is unclear. He said that if it is allowed a players deposit would be separate from credit funds.
Dr David Schwartz, Director of the Centre for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, thinks there are no legal issues around IOUs. “I think if they develop their credit procedures,” he said, “it won’t be too much different than doing it in person. Casinos already make millions of dollars in credit decisions every year, so they obviously have systems to do this, and they do it pretty well.”
He said Nevada already has “very strict” reserve regulations for online games. A player’s funds must be available at all times, while cash funds are required to be federally insured with daily accounting taking place.