Nevada Online Gambling Geo Compliance Gets Tough

Nevada is one of the three states in the US that regulates online poker and casino gaming, with Delaware and New Jersey being the other two, and geo compliance issues have been, well....an issue, since day one. A key factor to allowing individual states to provide their own online gambling regulation and licensing is that of geo compliance, ensuring that players who say they're in Nevada, for example...are actually where they say they are, and Nevada uses the Vancouver based GeoComply company to make sure each player accessing state regulated gaming sites is within state borders.

Combined with ID and age verification, geo compliance ensures that each company that's licensed to provide online gambling in the state is sticking to the rulebook and licensing requirements and opponents of Nevada online gambling have often argued that tech used in geo compliance isn't all it's cracked up to be, however a reporter from the Las Vegas Review has done a little testing.

Out on the Nevada-California border in a town called Primm the reporter logs into his Nevada WSOP account. He's able to play a hand of Texas Hold'em when in Nevada and then crossing the border into California, just a few meters in he attempts another play, and gets the message, “We have detected that you are attempting to wager from outside the state of Nevada. You should immediately cease and desist from attempting to wager.’’ The software is clearly working, and working well.

A Big No to Proxy Servers

This is however a simple straight up “out of the state” situation, and most players who are trying to hide where they are playing from are a little more sophisticated and use proxy servers, however the GeoComply software, which is now used in all three states that regulate online gaming, has the upper hand here too. Using a multi-level location system they're able to spot, and log off, anyone who is playing outside of Nevada, no matter how they try to cover their tracks, leaving the deputy chief of enforcement at the Nevada Board of Gaming Control, David Salas to say that there have been no reported cases of people playing from outside of the state.

GeoComply has done a stellar job of making sure online gaming companies in the US, stick to licensing requirements as far as geographical location is concerned, and they're now taking their tech to new areas, including TV, Sports and possibly helping the emergency services too.