Nevada Online Poker Rise 12% To $926k In March

The Nevada State Gaming Control Board has released its online poker results for March, revealing a 12.2% increase in revenues to $926,000 compared to the $824,000 collected in February. Taken in combination with its land-based casinos, The Silver State generated $982 million last month, up 7.6% year-on-year and representing Nevada’s biggest total so far in 2014.
It was last April that Nevada launched the country’s first ever regulated online poker site, Ultimatepoker.com, with WSOP.com and Real Gaming later joining the market. According to the NSGC’s latest figures, these sites have now generated almost $10 million over the past 11 months and, much to the relief of Nevada’s brick-and-mortar casinos, do not seem to have eaten into their profits at all. As NSGC Board Chairman A.G. Burnett, explains:
“I think it’s going to be an enhancing-type of activity where more players who are interested in interactive poker are actually brought to the strip and northern Nevada to play land-based poker tournaments.”
In spite of the positive results, however, PokerScouts’ latest ‘Online Poker Traffic Report’ presents a less impressive story on the state’s online poker industry. Whereas Ultimatepoker.com boasted an average of around 220 cash game players between May and September 2013, when it was the Nevada’s sole internet poker room, traffic has since dramatically declined. Currently, PokerScouts shows WSOP.com with an average of 90 cash game players, and Ultimatepoker.com with 60 players, while the recently launched Real Gaming is displaying no players at all.
The traffic figures also highlight the importance of smaller states forming player pool sharing compacts, like the one between Nevada and Delaware which is expected to begin sometime this summer. Although the immediate results are likely to be minimal, the compact is seen as important in enticing other US states to take the plunge and adopt online poker regulations of their own.
As the Interactive Gaming Council explained recently, having a sufficient large online player base is vital so as to ensure there are “enough players online to create an experience that retains customers and profitability.”