LAS VEGAS (AP) – As a professional, Johnathan Wendel’s day is focused on staying at the top of his game – that includes eight hours of practice, running to stay in top shape and avoiding taboo performance-enhancing drugs.
But he’s not your typical athlete. He’s a professional video gamer who goes by the screen name “Fatal1ty” and has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in what has become a spectator “esport.”
Gov. Brian Sandoval and the other members of the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee met Friday to hear from people like Wendel and discuss how the explosively popular professional video game industry could become and the economic development opportunity it presents. They’ll need to decide whether “cyberathletes” like Wendel should be considered athletes and whether the matches he joins on screen are a sport.
If so, existing Nevada laws and regulations would allow people to wager on the outcome of video game tournaments as they do on other sports or bet against each other poker-style, with the house taking a cut of the action. That would be a boon for a state that wants to attract a younger generations to casinos and maintain its dominant role in an evolving gambling industry.
Committee members met a former professional Call of Duty player and the CEO of a video game league during their crash course in the world of esports. The activity involves people watching other people play video games, often through live, interactive broadcasts.
The millions of visitors at the website Twitch can tune into a streaming video game broadcast and chat with the player or other spectators. Some players become celebrities for their charisma or skill.
The best players make a living off esports and compete as part of professional leagues that face off weekly. Championships are held in arenas complete with commentators giving play-by-play.
Some casinos are already trying to get in on the action. The Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip hosted a major League of Legends tournament last month that featured some of the most famous cyberathletes.
The Downtown Grand casino in Las Vegas has created a gaming lounge that resembles an internet cafe, with rows of high-power desktop computers. Guests sign up with the casino’s rewards program, and CEO Seth Schorr said about a quarter of the patrons meander over to more traditional table games or the casino bar during their visit.
Downtown Grand is also tweaking its menu to cater to video gamer tastes – that tends to mean food on a stick so gamers don’t get sticky fingers.
Sandoval, who said he doesn’t play video games himself except for the occasional losing matchup with his son, said he wants Nevada to stay relevant to the burgeoning industry.
“There’s a lot for me to learn,” he acknowledged at the meeting. “And I want to be receptive to a new generation of gamers.”
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
