Nevada gamblers get chance to go mobile
LAS VEGAS — Sarah Steineker, 50, is stuck to her seat. She’s got a bingo game going, and the “hot ball” jackpot is up to $14,490. But thanks to mobile gambling regulations that passed the Nevada Gaming Commission recently, she soon may be able to take that bingo game with her elsewhere in the casino.
“I could be eating in the restaurant but I’m still involved in the hot ball,” she said. The downside of mobility, she added, is “you’d probably spend more.”
Automated, portable bingo devices like FortuNet Inc.’s BingoStar have been around since the early 1990s, but they are not allowed outside bingo halls.
Nevada’s new regulations make that state the first in the nation to approve the use of hand-held devices for gambling in any public area of the state’s casinos, such as restaurants and poolsides.
Rules allow a range of games, including bingo, poker, blackjack and horse race betting. Use in hotel rooms and other places that cannot be supervised is prohibited.
Advocates say the move will better use resort space that is increasingly being devoted to non-gambling activities, such as shopping, dining and clubbing.
“Pools that are used by people as they are meant to be used are not making them (casinos) any money,” said Joe Asher, managing director of Cantor G & W (Nevada) LP, which has pushed to legalize mobile gambling in Nevada for two years.
Casino operators remain hesitant.
Major players Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and MGM Mirage Inc. and neighborhood casino operator Station Casinos Inc. say they are taking a wait-and-see approach.
The process of certifying systems and having field trials will take at least several months.
Still, at least four prospective manufacturers are plowing ahead, while keeping their estimates for market demand close to their chest. Many expect New Jersey to follow Nevada’s lead.
But taking gambling off the casino floor will make it harder to ensure minors don’t wager, said state Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, the lone lawmaker who voted against the bill when it passed the Legislature last year.
Manufacturers say biometric fingerprint readers and regulations limiting use to public areas will keep devices out of the hands of minors.
“It’s already hard enough to stop kids from playing Keno,” said Carlton, a part-time legislator who is a full-time waitress at the Treasure Island resort’s coffee shop.
As for mobile devices she has seen, “They look like a little Game Boy. They look like a toy.”