Nevada Gaming Control Board looks to streamline rules

Control Board Senior Policy Counsel Sebastian Ross assisted Chairman Kirk Hendrick through a 10-minute presentation Friday to the Joint Interim Standing Committee of the Judiciary. It was the first presentation on legislative priorities from gaming regulators before the 2025 legislative session that will begin in February.

The Control Board is expected to present two bill drafts to the Legislature within the next few days but details about them weren’t presented to the committee.

Committee members had no questions on the presentation which included a summary of the board’s efforts since the end of the last legislative session.

The Control Board and the Nevada Gaming Commission have already repealed 13 regulations, revised eight more and updated three surveillance standards with six regulations winning final approval by the commission at Thursday’s monthly meeting.

The Control Board also is in the process of replacing its technology operating system after being funded in 2023. Ross told the committee the contractor will need several more months to complete replacing the existing system.

Among the modifications made to streamline regulations, the board and commission:

— Revised a regulation simplifying tax collection for licensees by using gross revenue collection similar to the Nevada Department of Taxation process.

— Amended the process for placing individuals on the List of Excluded Persons by eliminating a list of some out-of-state sources that hadn’t been updated in decades.

— Added new taming technology approval guidelines providing specific timeline requirements to expedite the evaluation of gaming technology.

— Implemented the “Nevada One Day Evaluation” – NODE – requiring the technology division to complete an evaluation of a slot machine modification within one day of the receipt of an application.

— Implemented the “Ante Up Initiative enabling Control Board agents to perform a significant portion of field test procedures normally conducted by a licensee.

Ross said the regulatory upgrades are designed to keep the industry thriving in the state.

Ross said state gaming win continues to soar with the state recording the best May ever two months ago, which also was the eighth best month in history. May’s $1.32 billion in gaming win was 2.5 percent more than in May 2023 and through June, the state has collected $1.17 billion in gaming tax, a 4.5 percent increase over the previous fiscal year.

Not only have collections been ahead of prepandemic levels, but they were better than what the state’s Economic Forum had forecast for the fiscal year back in May 2023.

Gaming taxes represent 18.2 percent of the tax revenue generated for the state general fund, second only to the 30.4 percent contribution from sales tax.

June’s gaming win numbers and the final total for the 2023-24 fiscal year are expected to be reported by the Control Board next week.

The Control Board currently has 363 full-time equivalent employees within the six divisions of the board, including 108 in enforcement, 90 in auditing, 67 in investigations and 39 in technology.The others are in tax and licensing and administration.

By Richard Velotta