A flat "No" was the response of Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett. Why not? "Since they’re free and they’re not monetized or slot machines or anything of that nature." He adds that it’s no different with the social-gambling games you might play on Facebook.
According to Kerry Langan, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, "We don’t consider anything like social gaming under our jurisdiction." Even when you buy extra e-chips, "you’re just paying for the right to play more." Langan draws a line between social gaming and Internet gaming, in which you have to have an account and put money into it to play even one spin of the roulette wheel or what have you.
Some social games, like MGM Resorts International and Station Casinos’ MyVegas offer point rewards and comps (such as free dinners) as an incentive to play. This would seem to make them gambling, which – per Nevada regulation – involved "a representative of value." However, according to Burnett, that’s an ancient question that boils down to three elements: prize, chance and consideration. Since you are playing the game for free, that removes "consideration" from the equation. "As you’re not paying to be given a potential prize," Burnett says, "it’s just a contest. Those are marketing elements."
Of course, if a Nevada gaming licensee were to step over the line in its social-gaming offerings (such as offering a monetary prize), that would bring it under Control Board scrutiny. Burnett likens it to casino nightclubs, which do not offer gambling but can and sometimes do bring disrepute on the casino itself, thereby pulling them into the Control Board’s orbit of responsibility.
(For the record, Nevada defines gambling as follows: "'Game' or 'gambling game' means any game played with cards, dice, equipment or any mechanical, electromechanical or electronic device or machine for money, property, checks, credit or any representative of value, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, faro, monte, roulette, keno, bingo, fan-tan, twenty-one, blackjack, seven-and-a-half, big injun, klondike, craps, poker, chuck-a-luck, Chinese chuck-a-luck (dai shu), wheel of fortune, chemin de fer, baccarat, pai gow, beat the banker, panguingui, slot machine, any banking or percentage game or any other game or device approved by the Commission, but does not include games played with cards in private homes or residences in which no person makes money for operating the game, except as a player, or games operated by charitable or educational organizations which are approved by the Board.")
So, there you have it.
By the way, talking of social gaming, today is the final day to enter the My Vegas Friends "Start the Year Off Right" Facebook contest, sponsored by ... us! Las Vegas Advisor has donated several prize packages, including three LVA memberships! Check out this YouTube video for details on how to enter -- contest ends 9 p.m. PST and you must be a member of MVF to earn entries.
