Nevada regulators mull new wagering account rules

By Thomas Moore

Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Allowing bettors to have one wagering account for all forms of gambling in Nevada — sports betting, online poker and slots — was the focus of a Nevada Gaming Control Board workshop on Thursday.

Bettors can now use wagering accounts for sports betting and some online games, but the proposed changes would add slots, video poker, bingo and other forms of wagering to the list.

The hearing was held in Carson City and video-conferenced to the board’s hearing room in Las Vegas. In both locations, representatives from the Nevada Resort Association, the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers and other industry organizations spoke on the proposed regulations and offered suggestions.

However, at least one of the people who spoke had significant questions about the new rules.

Harry Hagerty, president of Sightline Payments, argued to keep the term “prepaid access instruments” in the regulations as one of the methods gamblers could use to put money into wagering accounts. He also questioned the entire need for the new rules.

“Much of what you’re trying to create already exists,” Hagerty said. “A prepaid access instrument, like a credit or a debit card, requires opening an actual account in a bank and has all of the FDIC protection and all other protections that state and federal banking laws provide to debit and credit cards.”

Hagerty pointed out prepaid access instruments had already been approved by Nevada's gaming regulators. “You approved that solution in 2014,” he said. “It just wasn’t called a wagering account at that time.”

The instruments to whichHagerty was referring are accounts gamblers can fill with money, much like prepaid debit cards, and then use to make bets. According to Sightline’s website, consumers can use the accounts to bet on sports at William Hill and MGM sports books, among others.

It wasn’t clear during the workshop why the board hadn’t considered the instruments while drawing up the new regulations. But Hagerty said they could be used now, in the same way the new wagering accounts are intended to be used.

“This is not something to look for in the future,” he said. “We’re doing it now without the need of intermediate account. Patrons can get money in and out of these accounts in all the same ways that board is proposing for wagering accounts.

After the meeting, Hagerty explained that if gamblers can only add money to their wagering accounts using credit or debit cards, there will be some issues.

“The use of credit and debit cards to fund these accounts will be a choppy experience for patrons,” Hagerty said. ‘Only 60 percent will be able to get money in, and virtually none will be able to get money out back to the same debit or credit cards.”

Hagerty explained if you return an item to a store, the bank is OK with money going back to your card, if the amount is the same. But gamblers, who may only wish to return some of their money from a wagering account back to the credit card, won’t be able to.

“None of those transactions will work in the gaming system,” he said.

Also, Hagerty says, many banks have issues with gambling in general.

“If credit and debit cards for gaming worked the same way that credit and debit cards worked for retail at present, this would be fine,” he said. “But as we found out with online gaming in New Jersey and here, the credit cards don’t feel the same about online gaming. They will not approve those purchases.”

Once a gambler adds money to the accounts Hagerty is talking about, the banks are no longer involved and they can be used at casinos

At the end of the meeting, members of the board promised to take the testimony under consideration and no action was taken.

It’s likely the board will hold at least one more hearing before making recommendations to the Nevada Gaming Commission, which then can either approve the board’s recommendations or reject them and ask for more work to be done.