It doesn’t look like it will be happening all that soon, but the top executive one of the leading gaming companies in the United States believes that an interstate online poker compact between Nevada and New Jersey will become a reality next year.
Following a second quarter earnings conference call, MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren told Reuters, “I think it’s likely that in 2014 we’ll see a compact between New Jersey and Nevada.”
“We’ve really been focusing on Nevada’s ability to compact with other states, create more liquidity,” he added.
Earlier this year, the Nevada legislature approved a change to the state’s internet gambling law, permitting the Governor to enter into agreements with other states to allow residents of one state to play on online poker rooms based in the other. No compacts have been forged yet; online poker rooms in Nevada (Ultimate Poker is still the only one up and running) can currently only offer games to people within state borders.
Such compacts may be very important to Nevada. It is just the 35th most populous state in the nation, with an estimated 2.8 million residents. Considering not all of those people are old enough to play poker online and only a fraction of those will actually signup to play, Nevada’s online poker rooms will be hard pressed to maintain a solid flow of traffic, especially when competition picks up. New Jersey, though, is the 11th largest state in terms of population, with 8.9 million residents. If Nevada poker rooms could start drawing customers from New Jersey, it would be a great help.
Delaware, the other state that allows online poker, will almost certainly look to forge interstate compacts, as well, as at less than a million people, it is one of the smallest states in the country.
There had been rumblings a while back that New Jersey might not be amenable to interstate compacts in order to protect its casinos (whether or not that made sense is another discussion), but that does not appear to be the case. New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) Director David Rebuck told Reuters that “future opportunities for growth and development with other jurisdictions” are likely.
His counterpart in Nevada, chairman of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board A.G. Burnett, said, “Nevada is striving to do what it can in regards to compacts. We do not jump into the fire without having done a lot of cautious research and study into the particulars of such agreements, and that phase is nearing completion.”