Nevada First State Allowing Mobile Sports Betting

Nevada gaming regulators will permit gambling operators to accept wagers involving sports betting placed over Blackberry devices starting this football season. And American Wagering, the company which developed the mobile gambling application, says residents of that state will soon have programs to place bets on sports over iPhones, Droids, and other popular phones.

Other than minor exceptions in Delaware, Montana, and Oregon, Nevada is the only state legally permitted to allow sports gaming, under federal law. But several states have questioned the fairness of the statute, and New Jersey is presently suing to recover its sports betting rights, a potential source of massive revenue to most states that currently is handled mostly by organized crime.

The Blackberry betting platform created by American Wagering requires users to appear in person at one of the company’s 60 Leroy’s sportsbooks, to open an account. Once age verification is complete, the account is linked to a specific mobile device, which can then be ascertained through GPS to be within Nevada borders.

American Wagering CEO Vic Salermo says the company will likely market the applications to Nevada’s biggest gambling operators, such as Harrah’s Entertainment, MGM, and Las Vegas Sands.

Online casino gambling regulation is expected to be approved by Congress within the next year, and advocates of sports betting are pointing out both the loss of tax dollars as well as the funding of criminal enterprises due to sports gambling being kept illegal. Increased sports betting by Nevada casino operators is sure to accelerate the attacks on the federal sports betting ban.