After monitoring Ultimate Gaming’s online poker website for three months, the Nevada Gaming Commission is confident the site’s security will keep minors and out-of-state players from playing.
The field trial ended July 11, after which commissioners gave their final OK to the site. Ultimate Poker has dealt more than 9 million online hands since it launched in late April, the Associated Press reported; it is now the only legal online gaming site in the United States on which users can play for cash. Ultimate Gaming is a majority-owned subsidiary of Station Casinos LLC.
“From the Nevada perspective, it’s a very important moment in that it proves that the technology works,” Tom Breitling, Ultimate Gaming cofounder and chairman, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “If it works in Nevada, we know that it can work in other states.”
Though the site is restricted to players located within state boundaries, thousands of people from across the United States and 30 other countries have registered with the site.
“It proves that there is pent-up demand for online poker,” said Breitling, who predicted this new market could generate $50 million to $100 million in its first year.
