State Senate hears testimony in support of gambling in hotel rooms via mobile device

CARSON CITY — A company that makes a mobile gambling device is seeking to revive a provision in a bill that would allow Nevada visitors to gamble in their hotel rooms.

Cantor Gaming CEO Lee Amaitis testified in support of the idea Monday before the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

Amaitis and others want to amend Assembly Bill 294 to include a provision that would strike from state law a prohibition on using mobile devices to gamble from hotel rooms.

The ability to expand mobile gambling to include hotel rooms was in the original version of the bill sponsored by Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, but was taken out before it passed out of the Assembly Committee on Judiciary.

At the time, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said it would be challenging for regulators to enforce laws against underage gambling if it were conducted from a hotel room.

Casino customers can now use mobile gambling devices from locations near the casino floor but not in hotel rooms. In addition to allowing gambling from hotel rooms, backers of the amendment say the devices could accommodate gambling in restaurants, nightclubs or anywhere else on resort property.

The hand-held devices won’t work if taken off of resort property.

Amaitis estimated that an expansion into hotel rooms could generate an extra
$18 million annually in gambling taxes, because many people who don’t gamble while in Las Vegas are intimidated by stepping up to a live table but would be likely to try a mobile gambling device in private.

“They actually use it as a learning method,” Amaitis said.

Lipparelli said the control board wouldn’t object to the amendment if it merely lifted the prohibition on hotel room gambling, meaning regulators would still have the choice to prevent the practice until regulators are confident it wouldn’t increase the risk of underage gambling.

The committee didn’t vote on the measure. The bill has until Friday to get through the committee or be declared dead.

Contact Benjamin Spillman at
bspillman@reviewjournal.com or
702-477-3861.