Question of the Day - 06 February 2022

[Editor's Note: This piece is penned by business reporter/blogger David McKee.]

According the equally reliable Nevada Independent, “The Nevada Gaming Commission unanimously approved a regulation change that will allow customers to establish wagering accounts for cashless gaming remotely, ahead of arriving at a casino cage.”

Technology provider Sightline Payments was the moving force behind the rule change, which regulators approved after the Nevada attorney general’s office assured them that federal anti-money-laundering laws wouldn’t be contravened.

That's not to say that commissioners were entirely without qualms. Said Steven Cohen, “If it fails in the marketplace, you'll have a whole lot of people filing complaints and coming here during the public forum.”

Responded colleague Ben Kieckhefer, “We balance the need for intense integrity in some of these processes with the ongoing need to stay modern in our technological offerings to the consumers as they come into our state and our facilities.”

Cashless gaming is already legal in Nevada. What the rule change does is legitimize remote registration in order to enable you to go online to fund your gambling As opposed to “online gambling,” which isn't legal in the Silver State). Previously, you had to set up a cashless-gambling account in person at the casino, perhaps not an onerous burden, but possibly anachronistic in the tap-and-pay era of Starbucks and Amazon. 

Rather than having your ID verified onsite by casino staff, you can establish your account online using government-issued ID. Testified Sightline co-CEO Omer Sattar, “We actually think the system is more safe, more secure, but it makes it easier for the vast majority of consumers to actually try real cashless chains in the state of Nevada.”

Come March, you’ll be able to engage in remote, cashless, Sightline-enabled gambling at Resorts World Las Vegas and Aliante Casino. Resort World’s launch of cashless gambling last June was a mixed blessing, due to the on-site-registration requirement. Customers had to wait in line as long as two hours in order to create an account.

What you won’t be able to do is register online for sports betting. Nevada rules still archaically insist that you register your sports-betting account in person, even if you plan to bet online. The (rather flimsy) excuse is that casinos have invested billions in their physical assets and need to cover their bottom line. In other words, “We want people to come to our casinos and avail themselves of all of that,” as Sattar rather weakly put it, defending Sightline's position of not asking the Control Board to approve remote registration for sports betting.

“The concern has been that if there is full remote ID for sports, a well-funded European company is going to come to Nevada, buy a small casino in Reno or someplace else, get a license, and effectively compete against MGM, Caesars, and William Hill. We completely understand and agree with that,” Sattar continued.

Of course, there are no “well-funded European” companies in the American sports-betting sphere at present, unless you count BetMGM, co-owned by European firm Entain. What Sattar dares not speak is the fear that DraftKings or FanDuel will find a way to crack the Nevada market — and then the cat is really amongst the pigeons.

Sightline is also less than altruistic in its motives for pursuing remote registration. By its own research, players gamble 12%-18% more when doing so cashlessly. Worried Commissioner Ogonna Brown, “I’m still struggling with the actual necessity compared to the safeguards.” 

However, Kieckhefer waved away such concerns, saying the new rule was good for consumers (though perhaps not for those who harbor latent problem-gambling issues). “It’s more time they have to spend not having fun,” he continued. “From the integrity standpoint, this is the same technology that lets you take out jumbo mortgages. If we’re allowing people to access that type of credit, then from an integrity standpoint, [it’s appropriate] to rely on it to verify a person who then comes to the casino and is there. It’s not a shadowy person or a mystery.”