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Las Vegas Sands Corp. will be the first Nevada gaming operator to allow guests to gamble at its Venetian Resort Hotel Casino using hand-held mobile gambling devices. Last March, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved the use of wireless hand-held devices for gambling in public areas of casinos such as restaurants, nightclubs and poolside where the activity can be monitored by the casino's security and surveillance system.
The Nevada Gaming Commission has approved operational rules that will allow patrons to gamble at select casino sites using handheld wireless devices. The devices can play wireless poker and blackjack, among other games. The devices will be licenced for use in public casino areas such as pools, lounges, bars, restaurants and convention areas. An obvious continued concern remains the potential access to the devices by minors. Nevada is the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to approve wireless gambling devices.
Following my earlier post on the Nevada Gaming Control Board's test with hand-held wireless gambling devices, it appears as if the devices may be approved shortly for use as gaming devises and regulated. The Board, after testing the devises for a period of months, has determined that they are secure and reliable, and that they can be programmed in such a way as to minimize the risk of minors from using them to gamble. See the story in the Las Vegas Sun.
More revenue predictions for mobile gaming - according to Informa Telecoms & Media, global revenue for the mobile gambling industry will top $8.3 billion (CDN) a year by 2010. In 2005, the mobile gaming revenue is expected to be $1.4 billion (CDN). Read more here. The predictions seem quite low, compared to other studies.
Europe is likely to remain the largest market for mobile gambling, followed by the Asia-Pacific region. Mobile gaming in North America remains uncertain. Except in very limited areas (inside casinos in Nevada), online gambling in the U.S. is illegal. In Canada, several gaming regulators are looking at options to regulate online gaming in the country to avoid being left out of the lucrative online gaming market. There is already a significant online gaming presence in Canada with the Kahnawake Indian Reservation in Quebec which acts as a cyber gaming regulator for most of the online gaming sites around the world.
The Wireless Weblog, has a good post on Nevada's foray into legalizing wireless gambling (using handheld devices). Under proposed regulations being drafted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, patrons of regulated casino operators can gamble using wireless devices as long as they stay on casino property. Not much of a foray into wireless gambling if you ask me, considering how extensive and pervasive online and wireless gambling is in Europe and elsewhere, but it's a start.
As the post in Wireless Weblog points out, the U.S. laws prohibiting online gambling mean that gambling revenue is flowing elsewhere (i.e. to the 70 countries around the world that permit online gambling). Read more here. Or read the updated story in The Seattle Times.
Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, the Irish discount airline carrier, announced plans to proceed with offering in-flight gambling across Europe by 2007. According to O'Leary, if a gaming operator can be found in the next few months, the airline will start testing in-flight gambling by the summer. Story here.
The Independent reported that, as measured by downloads, gambling by cellular phone has increased 367% this year over last year, with a record 3 million betting pages downloaded. Definitely an area of growth for the gaming industry.
