The Golden Nugget is joining forces with Chiligaming to launch an online poker site . . . in the United States . . . to be up and running in the next quarter.
Golden Nugget chairman Tilman Ferttita says, “We believe that online gaming is inevitable in the United States and that the Golden Nugget will be well positioned to compete when US laws allow for online gaming.”
It’s a wonderful quote for the gaming community to hear, but almost a superfluous one after the signing of such a landmark partnership. Just to use a few clichés, the action itself really does speak louder than words, and investing in software development before it’s even explicitly legal really does put their money where their mouth is.
Chiligaming, a French-based company, isn’t the most common household name to American players, but they have strong selling points that obviously worked with the live casino mega-company. Many sexy buzz words are being used in association with Chiligaming and their iGaming platform, including platform-friendly, UIGEA-compliant, and iPhone and Android playing capability.
The press release may speak to the biggest reason behind the Golden Nugget’s selection, though. It says Chiligaming’s iGaming platform “is designed to both facilitate swift entry into the market and maximize options for the Golden Nugget as the US regulatory and vendor landscape takes shape.”
In other words, even going on the assumption that online poker becomes explicitly legal, there is so much uncertainty about everything from age verification and problem gambling regulation to rake and tax structure, and the Golden Nugget feels confident that iGaming is the most flexible and savvy option to account for and react to all of those variables.
It seems almost silly to point out, but this is great news for the US poker market. Of course this is a huge vote of confidence from a company that you’d imagine would have a strong feel for the legal climate surrounding gambling. But even for those who will only believe it when they see it, this news at the very least shortens the window between the hypothetical passing of the hypothetical legality bills and the launching of a regulation-ready US poker site.
So regardless of whether this convinces you that the online gaming renaissance is nigh in the US, or this is just a move that expedites the process of if and when the US can shuffle up and deal, this is a win-win for the online poker community.