The Nevada Gaming Commission Thursday gave casinos the go-ahead to allow their customers to sign up remotely for cashless gaming and payment accounts.
The move comes as some casino industry experts report that customers have been slow to adopt cashless gaming, a trend expected to continue until the technology evolves and becomes more seamless to use.
The Gaming Commission addressed the seamless issue. The unanimous approval followed a one-hour hearing in which some commissioners questioned the potential for identification fraud and wondered aloud about the need for the change in regulation requested by Sightline Payments.
In June, Sightline launched the world’s first cashless payment system at Resorts World Las Vegas. Sightline said the launch was hindered by customers having to wait in line for two hours in the worst-case scenarios, rather than being able to use cashless gaming as soon as they walked into Resorts World. Remote sign-up would streamline a cumbersome process and make it more seamless, the company argued.
Under the new regulation, patrons can create their wagering accounts and upload a government document to verify their identities. That eliminates the step of having to verify IDs with casino staff. The approval, however, covers only casino gaming and doesn’t include remote signups for sports betting and horse racing accounts. Those will continue to be done in casinos only, unlike what is done in other states around the country.
“This shift to allow for digital identity verification for wagering accounts allows Nevada’s gaming industry to leverage the best practices from across the financial-services industry to enhance customer security and the customer experience,” said Jennifer Carleton, Sightline’s Chief Legal Officer. “Nevada’s new regulation is in line with federal guidance permitting both new verification methods including knowledge-based authentication, as well as traditional documentary measures such as a customer’s driver’s license or passport. We look forward to working with regulators in gaming jurisdictions across the country to advance similar regulatory innovation.”
Omer Sattar, co-CEO of Sightline, said the remote signups could go into effect in March, but even he admitted that brisk opposition to remote registrations for sports betting remains and explained why it wasn’t included in what the Gaming Commission considered.
“The concern with sports betting is that the industry invests billions of dollars in physical buildings and we want people to come to our casinos,” Sattar said. “The concern has been that if there is full remote ID for sports, a well-funded European company is going to come to Nevada, buy a small casino in Reno or someplace else, get a license, and effectively compete against MGM, Caesars and William Hill. We completely understand and agree with that.”
There was no opposition Thursday. Station Casinos, which previously expressed concerns about violations of federal anti-money laundering laws, dropped its opposition to the remote cashless signup. Sattar told the Commission that there are no concerns about identification fraud for those who sign up remotely.
The gaming industry is on the cusp of providing modern payment technology to casinos in Nevada and throughout the country, Sattar said. Continuous innovation is critical to ensure Nevada stays at the forefront of gaming, he said. “Nevada is the intellectual capital of not just America, but the world, for everything that happens in gaming,” Sattar said.
There are benefits to encouraging cashless, Sattar said. As industries have converted away from cash to electronic payments, consumers spend between 12% and 18% more money and tip more.
Commissioner Ogonna Brown was among those who questioned the need for the remote registration. “I am just not sure convenience and efficiency are the biggest concerns,” Brown said. “Those are the safeguards and protections. I’m not seeing why the in-person verification is so inefficient or inconvenient. At the same time, there’s no kicking and screaming that this is terrible, but I’m still struggling with the actual necessity compared to the safeguards.”
Commissioner Ben Kieckhefer called the new regulation good for consumers. As the Commission balances the need for integrity in the process with the ongoing need to stay modern in technological offerings to consumers as they visit the state, the regulation makes a lot of sense.
“It may not feel like a burden (to us), but for consumers, it can,” Kieckhefer said. “It’s more time they have to spend not having fun. From the integrity standpoint, this is the same technology that lets you take out jumbo mortgages. If we’re allowing people to access that type of credit, then from an integrity standpoint, (it’s appropriate) to rely on it to verify a person who then comes to the casino and is there. It’s not a shadowy person or a mystery. When you combine all of those factors, it moves us in a positive direction of supporting where consumers want to be.”
