According to an Associated Press report, Nevada regulators recently recommended that Cantor Gaming, a manufacturer and distributor of hand-held mobile gaming devices, be licensed to market its hand-held, mobile gambling devices in the state. If this is true, Cantor Gaming will become the first such business to be licensed in the state of Nevada for selling the remote gambling devices. Prior to the recommendation, Cantor had launched an intensive legislative campaign to permit wireless gaming in Nevada. The Gaming Commission, which is the parent of the Nevada regulatory board, will make its final decision on the license at a May 18th meeting.

The Board endorsed Cantor Gaming after the managing director and vice president of Cantor, Joe Ashor, said that Cantor was committed to investing significant amounts of capital for the purposes of installing mobile gambling systems in Nevada hotels and casinos. Asher believes that the hand-held devices will attract gamblers in their 20s and early 30s who grew up with cell phones, video games and other devices, as well as older gamblers who are familiar with such technology.

In March, regulations based on 2005 legislation for hand-held remote gambling devices were passed, making Nevada the first state in the nation to approve use of handheld devices for gambling in any public area of the state's casinos (e.g. restaurants and pool areas).

Taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach, major operators such as Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and MGM Mirage Inc. and neighborhood casino operator Station Casinos Inc say they want to first see how the technology and the regulations for the technology evolve before embracing the concept. Boyd Gaming Corp., whose holdings include the Stardust in Las Vegas and co-ownership in the Borgata in Atlantic City, N.J., has expressed uncertainty regarding the demand for hand-held gadgets, even though the company does have electronic bingo devices at halls in its Las Vegas properties.

Cantor G&W (Nevada) LP is an affiliate of New York-based financial services company, Cantor. The technology for the mobile devices will be based on bond-trading technology, which has been used for mobile gambling devices in Britain since September 2003.

Louisiana-based Diamond I Inc., which has developed its own device; Reno-based International Game Technology, the world's largest manufacturer of slot machines; and FortuNet Inc., a Las Vegas-based gambling device manufacturer have also expressed interest in the technology.

Posted on: May 14, 2006

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