Nevada Bill SB40 Threatens Future Of Poker Tournament Staking

The Nevada State Gaming Control Board (NSGC) has proposed a new bill to tackle the problem of money laundering called SB40, but the piece of legislation also inadvertently threatens the future of poker tournament staking in the Silver State. The bill suggests making it illegal for someone to facilitate or place a wager on any ‘race, sporting event or future contingent event’ without first holding a valid NSGC license, and whilst designed to target sports betting proxies, the language of SB40 could apply equally to tournament poker.
If eventually passed, violating the piece of legislation would be considered a felony, with a suitable punishment proposed as “..imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 6 years, or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or by both fine and imprisonment.”
As well as targeting sports betting, the NSGC introduced bill is also an attempt to protect state casinos from money-laundering scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other Federal agencies. In 2013, for example, the situation came to the fore after the US Department of Justice fined the Las Vegas Sands $47.4 million for allowing a Mexican businessman with ties to drug trafficking, Zhenli Ye Gon, to lose $84 million at the venue during a three-year period between 2004 and 2007.
“All companies, especially casinos, are now on notice that America’s anti-money laundering laws apply to all people and every corporation, even if that company risks losing its most profitable customer,” explained US Attorney André Birotte Jr at the time.
Unfortunately, the practice in poker known as ‘staking’ could be caught up in the crossfire of SB40, and it’s not just the players who are concerned, as organizers could also see the popularity of many of their tournaments decline as players would be forced to fork out the whole of their tournament buy-ins themselves. This would not only impact many of the high roller events, but could further see a dramatic decline in the fortunes of the WSOP, and its prestigious $10k Main Event.
However, a whole series of judicial hurdles have to first be overcome before SB40 becomes a reality, and even then it would presumably be left to the discretion of law enforcement to decide who to target, and whether potentially damaging Nevada’s poker tournament industry by going after poker players was in the state’s best interests.