STRATEGIC PARTNERS
May 26, 2003
LAS VEGAS -- The Nevada Gaming Commission on May 22 blocked a plan to equip slot machines with card readers, saying the issue required further study and raised concerns about possible effects on players given direct access to their checking accounts through gambling machines.
The move to shelve debit card access was based on a recommendation from the three-member Gaming Control Board.
According to a report in the Las Vegas Sun, the commission approved regulations requiring all slot machines in larger casinos to install online cash metering systems that will allow gaming regulators to perform faster and more complete tax audits. The technology would ease the way for casinos to expand the use of "cashless" slots and other systems that can transfer money electronically.
The state Legislature in 1995 outlawed the use of credit cards in gambling devices over concerns about gambling addiction. Yet that same year, the Legislature approved the use of debit cards.
However, the Gaming Control Board must first adopt regulations allowing casinos to implement the technology, according to the Sunreport.
If adopted, Nevada would likely be the first state to allow gamblers to use debit cards in slot machines. The decision would have broad implications as other states consider whether to allow debit card gambling. Regulators haven't set a timeline for adopting the debit card regulations.
Major casinos haven't pushed the board to allow debit-card slot machines and no one argued for their use on May 22.
Gaming policy and problem gambling experts applauded the decision to hold off on debit cards.
"I'm not opposed to it but I think it's a new and troubling area. What risk is there for people who may be problem gamblers to put a pipeline into their bank account?" said Shannon Bybee, director of the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Conducting research on the topic should be the burden of the applicant and must be the result of independent study, said Bybee, a board member of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
"A lot of what you have is opinion and it's not all educated opinion," he said. "In the past, so many people who became authorities on problem gambling were either opposed to it or in favor of it and they did their work in many ways to justify their point of view."
The regulations, about two and a half years in the making, require slot makers to adopt a variety of meters to track various aspects of their machines by Feb 1. Casinos that generate more than $10 million in gambling revenue will have two years to adopt online slot metering systems that can transmit cash information electronically and allow regulators to audit casinos electronically. Regulators have traditionally performed manual audits by reviewing accounting records and slot machine output.
Many casinos have already begun to introduce cashless machines that can accept and dispense paper vouchers instead of coins, according to the Sun. Until now, regulators have been using outdated rules to oversee such machines.
The new rules govern a variety of electronic fund transfer systems that will make slot play more convenient for gamblers, including the ability to transfer money from the casino cage directly to a machine or transfer credits from machines into a personalized casino account.
