October 18 2012, PokerNews Staff

Las Vegas-based Fertitta Interactive LLC, which owns the UFC and Station Casinos, has been approved for an interactive gaming license from the Nevada Gaming Commission as a service provider of online poker in Nevada.

The license will allow Fertitta Interactive to provide real-money online poker under its new Ultimate Gaming brand. Fertitta began developing Ultimate Gaming when it acquired gaming company CyberArts Licensing LLC last October. The first offering from the company was Ultimate Poker, a free platform which launched on Facebook in June.

The Fertitta group said at this month’s hearing with the Nevada Gaming Control Board that Ultimate Gaming’s entrance into the real-money online poker market will allow it to expand its Las Vegas staff from 26 to about 100 by next year.

“With our unique ability to leverage the overlapping demographics between online gaming, traditional gaming and the worldwide sports and entertainment brand of the UFC, Ultimate Gaming is ideally positioned to rapidly capture a significant following in the United States and throughout the globe,” said Tom Breitling, chairman of Ultimate Gaming.

Fertitta’s hearing Thursday came shortly after the Nevada Gaming Commission met with Boyd Gaming, which received interactive gaming license as an operator. The NGC will next meet with the Golden Nugget to round out Thursday’s interactive license hearings.

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Photo courtesy of Ultimate Gaming Facebook page.

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August 08 2012, Brett Collson

The South Point Casino’s aim to become the first legalized intrastate online poker room in Nevada took a giant step on Wednesday. In a hearing with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, South Point received preliminary approval to offer real-money online poker as an operator, manufacturer and service provider.

South Point will now seek final license approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission on Aug. 23.

South Point CEO Mark Gaughan told eGaming Review last month that his real-money online poker site would be the first to launch in Nevada. Gaughan predicted his site would be ready to launch as early as September, but an attorney for the company said on Wednesday that the site could be up and running by October.

Once the company receives a license later this month, it will need to complete the inspection process of its technology before it can offer real-money online poker. The developer of South Point’s online poker system said Wednesday that the site’s technology could reach the second level of approval by an independent testing lab this month, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Howard Stutz.

South Point has been running a free-to-play online poker room at SouthPointPoker.com since late last year, but Gaughan says the real-money site will have new software.

Gaming suppliers IGT, Bally Technologies and Shuffle Master were the first companies to receive licenses to act as service providers for Internet poker operators in Nevada. However, because South Point’s poker platform will run internally, it will get the jump on other providers that will have to wait up to six months for their technologies to be tested by the board and the state. The suppliers will also need to line up partnerships with Nevada casino operators to provide online poker within state lines.

Monarch Interactive, another one of the 30-plus companies that applied for online poker licensing in Nevada, also received approval from the gaming board on Wednesday.

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