Under a new state law, companies and individuals are no longer required to run a gaming company or have an agreement to acquire a casino in Nevada before they can file for a license.

Prior to the measure recently signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval, in order to apply for a gaming license or a finding of suitability, applicants already had to be doing business with a casino or have an agreement that gave them the right to be involved.

The law, on the books since the 1980s, allowed busy state regulators to focus on deals that seemed more financially secure. But with the Sahara closing in May, and both the Echelon and Fontainebleau sitting half finished on the Strip, regulators say streamlining is needed to draw new investment to Las Vegas.

Hopefully, it will also attract investors seeking to build new resorts.

“It’s a good thing for Nevada,” Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said. “It provides flexibility in a license application that they didn’t have before. It does not diminish any of the strong requirements for suitability in anyway.”

The procedure subjects the applicant to the same level of investigation by the Nevada Gaming Control Board as an applicant for a nonrestricted license but does not authorize any particular industry involvement.

The “finding of suitability” is legal just like a regular gaming license except it expires after two years if not renewed.

The background checks are expected to take a year to 18 months, which is a similar to the time it takes for a traditional gaming license.

However, the initial background check was expected to shorten the investigation time necessary for a person’s subsequent application to be licensed for a particular casino ownership or operation.

The new law also includes improvements in the process for handling gaming control disciplinary complaints, and implements fines of $25,000 to $250,000 for each violation of any regulation.

“Nevada is the gold standard for regulating gaming and we must continue to be,” Sandoval said in a statement.

The Nevada Gaming Commission must adopt regulations to implement provisions of the bill.

The new law grew out of a class project of a gaming law seminar taught at William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, by Bob Faiss and Greg Gemignani, both gaming law attorneys at Lionel Sawyer & Collins.

“This legislation is going to enhance the orderly flow of new investment in the Nevada gaming industry,” Faiss said.

“I believe it is a fundamental and beneficial change to our gaming control system and is consistent with (the governor’s) resolve to have a gaming control system that is responsive to the realities of the modern gaming industry,” Faiss also said.

Faiss has directed student legislative projects at UNLV during each legislative session since 2001.

All have resulted in resolutions or bills that have been adopted, he said.

Student bills in prior sessions have dealt with issues such as rights of winners of periodic payments of progressive jackpots to assign payment to another person and the authority to appoint interim gaming control board members.

In 2009, Assembly Bill 218 was signed by then Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons, which confirmed the authority of the gaming commission to license government entities, such as sovereign wealth funds and Native American tribes.

A few members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans — support legalizing and regulating Internet poker. The Poker Players Alliance, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., advocacy organization, has seen its membership boom. Poker players, long known as a group not normally politically active, have taken an interest in the elective process.

It’s early in the game and many hands need to be played.

“The poker community has become galvanized over the last three months,” said Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas. “A lot of poker players were complacent, but that changed.”

Brian Balsbaugh, who represents some of the game’s top players through his Las Vegas-based Poker Royalty agency, has also noticed the change in attitude.

“Generally, as a group they don’t want to be organized or get involved,” Balsbaugh said. “Not anymore.”

The reaction by poker players was not a surprise, given that a revenue stream was drained.

On April 15, U.S. Department of Justice indicted the founders of the three largest online poker websites, PokerStars, FullTilt and Absolute Poker, charging them with 11 counts of money laundering and bank fraud. The actions shut down their operations in America.

That left the U.S. online gaming community with few places to turn.

Many players gravitated to casino poker rooms in Las Vegas, Indian casinos and regional gaming markets. Some players found action on smaller and somewhat shady poker websites. Most, however, were outraged they could no longer play online.

What has been learned in the three months since “Black Friday” is that poker players want their game.

The World Series of Poker has long been considered the center of the game’s universe. That has been much more evident during this year’s six-week run at the Rio.

Player participation in the tournament’s first 57 events increased nearly 7 percent from a year ago. Satellite game attendance, where the top prizes awarded were $5,000 and $10,000 seats into the major World Series of Poker events, grew more than 40 percent.

Originally, it was speculated the lack of Internet poker would reduce World Series of Poker players. The opposite turned out to be true.

Growth in live poker hasn’t dried up calls for passing federal legislation making Internet poker legal and regulated. The problem is there may be too many bills floating in Congress.

Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, introduced Internet poker legalization bills. Campbell’s bill is a reintroduction of the proposal pushed in the past by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

The American Gaming Association also entered the mix. In a keynote address to the Gaming Executive Summit in Madrid, Spain, last week, AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. said the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group would push its own legislation later this year that would favor Nevada and New Jersey as the licensing and regulatory authorities in a future U.S. Internet gaming market.

Pappas said the competing proposals might confuse poker players. But he’s happy that Internet poker regulation is being discussed.

“From a strategic perspective, it would be nice if everybody focused and got behind one bill so we can get this done,” Pappas said.

Balsbaugh believes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is key to any Internet poker bill getting through Congress. However, the Nevada Democrat failed to gain support for an Internet poker bill last December.

In any case, involvement and interest from the poker community is necessary.

Most players shun the limelight and would rather donate money toward the cause or candidates who support Internet poker. Others, such as 2004 World Series of Poker champion Greg Raymer, a licensed patent attorney, doesn’t mind being out front.

“We just want players to get involved,” Raymer said. “That’s the main thing.”

Actor Jason Alexander, a World Series of Poker’s Main Event participant the last five years as a PokerStars- sponsored player, said the federal government is missing an opportunity.

“A penny a hand per player could solve the national debt in two years,” Alexander said. “People want to play this game. There is no reason why they shouldn’t.”

The firm, which is now part of the GTechG2 group along with sister companies Finsoft, Dynamite Idea and St Minver, was started in 1996 by entrepreneur Joel Wikell in Växjö, Sweden and historically has experience in both the operational and software provider sectors, although it is now focused on the latter.

Boss Media operates the International Poker Network and numbers some of the industry’s top companies among its software licensees, including Bwin, Sportingbet, Svenskaspel and Bet-At-Home. Several of its licensees are members of the influential European Betting and Gaming Association, with which eCOGRA has strong professional ties.

The eCOGRA review was conducted by compliance manager Bradley Khoury, a Chartered Accountant and Information Systems Auditor, who travelled to Växjö to carry out a comprehensive review of systems and software over several days in order to test for compliance with the industry best practice standards required by eCOGRA’s eGAP regime.

The software supplier standards focus on the internal controls governing the development environment in order to ensure the software is implemented, maintained and continuously operated in a safe, secure and reliable manner.

Commenting on the review of Boss Media’s online casino and poker software, Khoury said that he had received full cooperation from Process Manager Tom Svalaklev and his department.

“The Boss Media staff members were exceptionally cooperative and well organised during the on-site review,” said Khoury. “The requirements of our follow up review were excellently structured and quickly resolved in a highly professional manner.”

Andrew Beveridge, chief executive officer of eCOGRA, said that the Boss Media review had gone exceptionally well and applauded the company on its achievement of certification.

“This is a highly respected industry company that has been active in the business for over a decade, and the process efficiencies and very high software quality reflect that,” he said. “On behalf of eCOGRA’s Independent Directors I congratulate Boss Media and its employees on a very professional effort.”

Boss Media CEO Johan Berg said that the company has always been committed to the highest possible quality in both products and operational conduct.

“Our achievement in meeting eCOGRA’s demanding software certification standards reaffirms that commitment and provides us with a useful and internationally accepted benchmark against which we can measure our performance,” he said.

The Tour is scheduled to make stops in Ireland, Scotland and England between now and October with the final due to take place around season seven of the European Poker Tour London event at the Metropole Hotel.

PokerStars already sponsors the Irish Poker Championships in Galway and revealed that the first UKIPT tournament featuring a €2,000 buy-in would take place from December 11 to 14 at the city’s Radisson Hotel. From here, the Tour will move on to Manchester’s G Casino for a £550 buy-in tournament from February 11 to 14.

Coventry’s G Casino will host the third event with a buy-in set at £550 from April 8 to 11 while event four with an identical buy-in will be staged at Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn from May 13 to 16.

The UKIPT returns to Ireland from June 24 to 27 with Killarney’s Gleneagle Hotel playing host to a €1,100 buy-in tournament while the action shifts to Brighton’s Rendezvous Casino for a £1,100 buy-in event from July 15 to 18.

PokerStars revealed that an as yet undecided venue in Scotland would host the next event before Dublin’s Burlington Hotel sees a €1,100 buy-in tournament from September 9 to 12.

The London final will be a £5,300 buy-in affair running from October 2 to 8 while PokerStars revealed that the Manchester, Coventry and Nottingham events would have a guaranteed prize pool of £100,000. In addition, the Killarney and Dublin tournaments will feature a €250,000 guaranteed prize fund while the winner of each leg will receive a seat at the London final.

PokerStars.com is also running a UKIPT leaderboard points competition for every event with additional prizes up for grabs for those that have performed the best come the end of the season.

RON Parsons wants you to help him break the casino.

It’s not an Ocean’s Eleven-style invitation. Mr Parsons, a professional gambler ranked in the top 200 by Crown in Melbourne, wants to distribute his system for winning at the roulette wheel at Sydney’s Star City Casino in response to what he said were unfair practices on the blackjack table.

“I am taking them on because as far as blackjack is concerned, they are manipulative and punters have virtually zero chance to win,” he said.

“I’ve been gambling all over the world for more than 30 years, making a good regular income from casinos and I recommend you don’t play blackjack at Star City.”

He said with the right number of people using his system, about $800 million will be stripped from the casino in the next 12 months.

In 2004 Parsons launched a similar campaign against Melbourne’s Crown casino, claiming 500 students stripped more than $1 million from the casino’s blackjack tables using another betting system he developed.

He says both systems are legal.

A spokesman for Star City said there are many gambling systems on the market and those who took up the offer should bet with caution.

“We are happy for anyone to try any system which complies with the casino rules,” he said.

“But we would urge anyone using a system to bet only what they can afford to lose.”

Mr Parsons claims Star City’s use of continuous card-shuffling machines disadvantages gamblers.

That’s according to opponents including church groups, Rep. Louis Blessing Jr., and attorneys for TruthPAC, a casino opposition group financed in part by horse tracks.

Casino opponents say because the proposed constitutional amendment expressly allows bingo, lottery games and horse-race betting, any other form of gambling in Ohio would automatically be banned if Ohio voters approve Issue 3.

“The language is set in stone,” Blessing told the Enquirer.

Former Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, as chairman of the Ohio Jobs and Growth Plan — which proposes four casinos in four Ohio cities including Cincinnati’s Broadway Commons — disputes that interpretation.

Luken said the wording will not restrict charitable gambling, including church festivals. “I just wanted to make sure that you understand that our initiative in no way affects current charitable gaming.” Luken said. “It was drafted not to affect charitable gaming that currently goes on at churches.”

However, neither Luken, nor Penn National Gaming, the lead casino developer, could provide a legal explanation why church festivals or Las Vegas nights are not listed in the proposed Issue 3 amendment.

“Once the voters realize this shuts down church festivals, Penn can kiss their amendment goodbye,” said Blessing, a Colerain Township Republican.

Jim Tobin, associate director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, agrees with Blessing’s interpretation: the Nov. 3 constitutional amendment would ban gambling at church festivals and at so-called Las Vegas nights. “It’s another reason why this is not a good proposal,” Tobin said Tuesday.

“How stupid are these guys, in their greed, to take a shot at the same people that might want to come to casinos?” Tobin said, referring to people who might enjoy charitable gambling at church festivals.

The wording that will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot is a concise, simple summary of the full constitutional amendment; the full amendment, to be added to the state constitution, is nearly six pages long.

Casino opponents have until Aug. 28 to file legal challenges against the proposed constitutional amendment in the Ohio Supreme Court.

Tom Smith, public policy director with the Ohio Council of Churches, said he also thinks that the proposed casino issue, as written, would ban all forms of gambling by churches and charitable foundations — except for bingo.

The last paragraph of the proposed six-page constitutional amendment states that lotteries and bingo would not be limited by passage of the casino issue. Opponents say that phrase, as well as other language in the amendment, automatically excludes other types of charitable gambling. Most observers believe that casino developers did not intend to ban gambling by churches and nonprofit groups.

Luken said his group might file a complaint against any opponent making a false statement about the ballot language.