Deseret News (Salt Lake City): Wireless devices let gamblers roam

LAS VEGAS -- No more need to fret about all that wasted time waiting in line for the buffet at your favorite casino. Or those tedious talks in a convention room just yards from the casino floor. Help is on the way to make it possible to gamble any time -- in fact, all the time.

Gov. Kenny G. Guinn signed a law last month authorizing gamblers in Nevada to play slot machines, video poker, blackjack and other games on hand-held wireless devices from public spaces in casinos. The spaces include restaurants, bars, convention rooms, even swimming pools. Hotel rooms, however, are off-limits, to make sure that minors do not get their hands on the new devices, which resemble personal digital assistants or tablet personal computers.

By the pool of the Paris Las Vegas hotel and casino, the idea had instant appeal. L. Dave Ross, a tourist from Tampa, Fla., said: "I have no moral objection to the device. Sure, I'd use it out here by the pool. Why not?"

After all, Ross said, "What do you come to Vegas for, except to gamble?"

Internet gambling is illegal in the United States, under a 1961 anti-racketeering law. But the just-approved hand-held devices will be legal because they will not be linked to the Web, said William Bible, the president of the Nevada Resort Association, which represents the major casino companies. The devices, which officials say are not likely to be in use in casinos until early next year, will be more like a wireless network with game programs loaded into them.

The devices were developed by Cantor Fitzgerald LP, the New York- based financial services company, for its bond trading operations and adapted for a bookmaking company it operates in the United Kingdom.

Joe Asher, the managing director of Cantor G&W (Nevada) LP, a Nevada affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald, declined to say which casino companies were in line to use the new mobile devices. He also declined to anticipate how much additional revenue the devices would generate for the casinos. The casinos would rent the devices to customers, who would open accounts to use them.

The current worldwide market for gambling on mobile devices is about $2 billion, according to a recent report by Juniper Research, a firm based in the United Kingdom. But it is expected to rise to $19 billion by 2009, and possibly much higher if the United States loosens its restrictions on Internet gambling, the report estimated.