Despite being known for leading the world of gambling, such as Nevada sports betting or casinos, the state’s online poker is going through a difficult time.
A plan to create a blacklist of people who cheat while playing online poker has been shot down. The proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 380 (AB 380), aimed to establish a list of people with interactive gaming accounts suspended or banned for cheating, but it’s not going to happen. At least not right now.
Nevada legalized online poker in 2013, but there is just one legal and operational online poker website, World Series of Poker, which Caesars Entertainment runs. Representatives from Caesars Entertainment were among those who stated unequivocally that they would have nothing to do with the idea. BetMGM also has a license but has yet to launch any of its products in the state.
During a hearing on AB380 earlier this month Lobbyist Mike Alonso said, “Caesars believes that publicly listing its customers will only lead to expensive and burdensome litigation for damaging someone’s reputation or from players who think that they lost money to an alleged cheater and want compensation.”
The Gaming Control Board did not say whether they support or oppose the adoption of AB380, which would have likely increased the need for manpower to keep the poker cheating list up to date.
Who Is Pushing for the Blacklist?
The bill was submitted on March 22 by professional poker player Sara Cholhagian Ralston, a former public health care advocate, in collaboration with Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, who is also a part-time poker player.
After Caesars came out against the bill, Ralston revised it. She removed the term “cheating” as well as any mention of suspensions or bans related to cheating. Instead, the new draft recommended compiling a list of all gamers with accounts and their current status. It didn’t change the outcome.
Despite the latest setback, Ralston told The Nevada Independent that the discussion about poker openness in Nevada “is too important to be abandoned, and I hope it will continue.”.
Unless Nevada gaming regulators add more transparency to online poker, Ralston said she would seek to reintroduce the bill in the 2025 legislative session. “As someone who cares deeply about the poker industry, I brought this issue forward because of my moral compass and the belief that transparency is crucial to protect the integrity of the game,” Ralston said.
Online Poker Security Measures Are Already in Place
Alonso called Ralston’s efforts for transparency “a laudable goal,” but he said that Caesars is already monitoring gameplay and the company has the authority to ban players caught cheating.
“Caesars is doing everything it can reasonably do to keep bad actors off the site based on its terms of service,” Alonso said. “In other words, bad actors shouldn’t be on the site and you shouldn’t be playing against them.”
Every poker hand played on the website is watched by “advanced algorithms” in the company’s software, according to Danielle Barille, vice president of Caesars Digital, which manages WSOP.com. She went on to say that Caesars Interactive is now “trimming accounts based on reasonable suspicion violations of our terms of service.”
So, it appears the blacklist battle will resume at a later date, and when it does, Bookmakers Review will be there to monitor the developments.
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