According to a report on the WSLS website, Nevada state bill AB258, the online poker proposal, was amended on Friday to direct:
“the Nevada Gaming Commission to begin drafting rules to regulate online poker, but stipulates that Internet gambling would not be implemented until sanctioned by Congress or the Justice Department.”
Additionally, the bill requires that online poker providers to have a partnership with “an existing non-restricted license holder or an affiliate that has been in business for at least five years”, according to WSLS.
The sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, is quoted as saying that the objective of the bill is to have a regulatory framework prepared “for the inevitable time the federal laws will be changed to allow online gaming in the United States.”
The bill, previously sponsored by PokerStars, had contained provisions that would explicitly forbid the Nevada Gaming Commission from restricting online poker operators that served the US market after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA) in 2006 from obtaining a license. A previous amendment removed that provision.
The Gaming Control Board has until January 2013 to implement the regulations.
