A bill recently introduced to the Nevada State Senate would allow the state to license and regulate live casino broadcasts of gambling games.
The bill, SB 431, was introduced March 24 and turned over to the Judiciary Committee.
It would allow the Nevada Gaming Commission to authorize rules and regulations to govern the live broadcast of games. Under the bill, the games could only be broadcast by satellite and through an encrypted or scrambled signal that cannot be easily de-coded.
In addition, the bill sets out to make sure Nevada's casino interests aren't jeopardized by the possibility of remote wagering. It states that the games would not be broadcast to anyone outside the venue of an authorized user or to anyone in Nevada.
An authorized user would include someone located in a state or jurisdiction where betting and wagering on live broadcasts is legal. Before licensing companies could provide the service, the Nevada Gaming Commission must be able to make sure the company has mechanisms to keep underage people from playing.
One jurisdiction that would make a prime audience for the broadcasts would be the United Kingdom, where interactive television betting is legal and already offered through several channels.
On Tuesday, the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill and heard testimony from one business man who said his company is already planning to offer the service, should it become legal in Nevada's casinos, to British customers via the Sky Network.
The businessman in question is Herbert Lindo, who is the president of Kenilworth Systems Corp. of New York. Lindo told lawmakers that his company wants to put cameras above Nevada's gaming tables and beam the action to England, where several million people could see the games.
When contacted by Interactive Gaming News, Lindo said he had been advised not to speak with reporters and that his company was in a "quiet period."
On March 4, Kenilworth issued a manifest detailing all of its arguments in favor of this form of gambling. The manifest, which takes the form of a press release, states: "Our system has the potential to replace the existing 2 million foreign virtual gambling Web sites now in place which garnished more than $5 billion from U.S. citizens in 2001 without paying any U.S. taxes."
Kenilworth has been around since 1968, but has not turned a profit since 1991, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. It also said that Lindo, 77, was convicted of breaking federal stock sale laws in 1993 and told to do community service and pay a $600,000 fine.
The Nevada lawmakers who were present during Lindo's presentation were "cool" to the idea of remote wagering, reported the Las Vegas Sun. Dennis Neilander, the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said that if any problems were incurred by the practice of remote wagering, it would reflect badly on the whole state's gambling industry.
Similarly, Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus said she was concerned that if cheating took place on either side of the satellite broadcast, it would tarnish Nevada's image.
To read S.B. 431, Click here.