Bad News for Nevada Online Gambling as Ultimate Gaming Closes

November 18, 2014 by

Nevada Online GamblingThe first form of regulated online gambling in the United States was Ultimate Gaming, a site that was specifically for online poker in the state of Nevada. It was held as a beacon for what could be the beginning of a major paradigm shift when it comes to online gambling in the United States. However, there’s bad news for Nevada online gambling after Ultimate Gaming has announced they will be closing up shop after more than a year and a half of being open for players inside of the state without turning a profit.

Why is Nevada Online Gambling Hurting?

One of the main reasons why this is happening is that it’s very difficult for online gambling, especially for poker but also for online casino and other games, to be profitable on a state-by-state basis. Intrastate gaming is necessary for profitability because these operators aren’t having an easy time making sure that enough players are available to keep the games going in a way that allows them to continue operations. With online poker this is a particularly insidious problem because of the complicated dynamics involved with managing the player ecosystem and monitoring the health of the games as a whole.

The Industry as a Whole

Something that’s a pretty big deal right now in the United States is that each individual state has to regulate online gambling on an individual basis. From there, different states may agree to share player pools in games like poker. However, this still requires funds to start up the regulatory committees and other parts of the process that need to be paid for.

One thing that doesn’t really help the situation is that the projections for online gambling revenues have been largely inflated in an effort to get politicians to buy in. Once the funds are allocated and the programs are underway, they’re quickly finding that revenues aren’t what they thought they would be. Other states are seeing this happen, and they won’t be fooled by people suggesting overly-inflated figures as potential levels of revenue.

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