Nevada is the world's preeminent gaming destination. Not by
chance, but by being a leader in gaming and entertainment
innovations. Nevada was the first state in the nation to legalize
gaming in 1931, the first to introduce the world to the
"casino-resort" with the Mirage in 1989, and, more
recently, the first state to license and regulate Internet gaming.
Now Nevada legislators have given regulators the green light to
allow for the state to take a leadership position in the new world
of "hybrid" games.
What is a "hybrid" game? For those who follow gaming
law, you know there are two types of games, skill games and games
of chance. Then there are those games that fall somewhere on the
spectrum between "pure skill" games and "pure
chance" games. A "hybrid" game would be one where,
by definition, the outcome will be determined by a combination of
skill and chance – and possibly other factors (or
"identifiers"), including frequency of play, use of other
casino services or amenities, and use in combination with other
technologies, such as social networking platforms like Facebook and
Instagram.
The idea is to draw in a new generation of customers who relate to
electronic skill-based game play and would be drawn to features
such as bonus rounds that reward the skill of a player, integration
of the games with their social media accounts, interactive
networked game play, and the use of electronic commerce
transactions.
Senate Bill 9 calls for the Nevada Gaming Commission to draft
regulations allowing the development of such technology for gaming
devices. The bill includes a policy directive and enhanced
rulemaking authority to make it clear that Nevada's gaming
regulators have the authority to both develop technical standards
for such hybrid games and to allow incorporation of other
technologies into gaming devices.
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