After two days of debate, Nevada legislators have reached a compromise and passed a bill that legalizes online gambling in the state.
It wasn't exactly smooth sailing for the bill, however.
On Wednesday, April 26 legislators passed AB296, which legalized online gambling, but failed to approve companion bill AB587, which outlined licensing fees for casinos and software providers.
As a result of that failure, both bills were sent back to the assembly for a second vote.
On Thursday, April 26 legislators addressed the fee issue and were able to reach a compromise that saw licensing fees drop from $1 million to $500,000 and taxes on the hardware necessary to launch online casinos drop from 10 percent to 6.25 percent.
These decisions were primarily made to appease legislators from rural areas, who were concerned that their constituents would be shut out by high licensing fees.
The assembly revisited the issue again today (Friday, April 27), and amended AB578 to incorporate Thursday's changes. The revised bill passed by a vote of 37-2, with three abstentions. Significantly, it includes many of the fundamental aspects of AB296, the original online gambling bill that was introduced by Merle Berman more than two months ago.
That bill will likely die in the assembly, a fact that did not make Berman particularly happy. She was quoted as saying, "I was the only one out of 63 legislators who even brought Internet gaming forward."
In spite of today's vote, it will still be some time before online gambling actually comes to Nevada. AB587 must first be approved by the Nevada state senate and signed by governor Kenny Guinn, and the Nevada Gaming Commission also has to establish licensing regulations for online casinos - a process that could take up to two years.
Stay tuned to WINNERonline for more developments in this story.
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