Associated equipment manufacturers who do business in the US state of Nevada will soon be subject to a whole new level of gaming licence requirements.
Due to the recent passage of Nevada Senate Bill 38, the Nevada Gaming Control Board has been granted expanded power to regulate and license AEMs.
Most gaming jurisdictions lump all gaming equipment maniufacturers into a single “manufacturer” licensing category, but Nevada is an exception. It classifies manufacturers into two groups – AEMs and gaming device manufacturers.
In Nevada, gaming devices, which include slot machines, are defined as those devices or objects used in connection with gaming that affect the result of a wager by determining win or loss. Associated gaming equipment is anything other than a gaming device that is tangential to the gaming operation. Examples include dice, cards, items that report revenue and equipment used for counting money.
Under the current Nevada regulatory scheme, gaming device manufacturers are required to go through the full gaming licensure process with the board and the Nevada Gaming Commission. AEMs, on the other hand, are not required to have a Nevada gaming licence but are subject to generally much less rigorous discretionary licensing approvals.
Now, with SB38, the licensing for AEMs will move from discretionary to mandatory. This does not mean that every AEM will need to undergo the full licensing process like a gaming device manufacturer. What the board envisions is a tiered system for AEM licensure and approvals, which will consist of different classes of regulatory approvals or licensure depending on where on the scale an AEM falls, from full gaming licensure to nothing at all.
Source: Dickinson Wright’s Gaming Legal News
