Nevada Gaming Commission To Determine License Approval for Iovation Thursday
In a hearing to be held Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, at 10 a.m. PT, the Nevada Gaming Commission will decide whether or not to approve Iovation for a license allowing the company to operate as a geolocation supplier to regulated online gaming sites in the state.
The decision comes after Iovation was recommended by board members of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
If the company name rings a bell, there's good reason, as Iovation has previous ties to online poker. The familiarity of Iovation to the poker industry stems from co-founder and CEO Greg Pierson's involvement with UltimateBet, where he was the online poker company's co-founder and CEO.
In May 2013, Travis Makar, an UltimateBet whistle-blower, released audiotapes that tied Pierson to Russ Hamilton in the cover-up of the infamous cheating scandal that rocked the poker world. It is estimated that players were cheated out of more than $20 million.
Iovation was later briefly involved with the first regulated online poker site in Nevada, Ultimate Poker, which dealt the first legal hand of online poker in the state on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Despite the similarities in the name, Ultimate Poker was unaffiliated with UltimateBet.
But, it was discovered shortly after the site's launch that Ultimate Poker was using the player verification services of Iovation. Following an uproar from concerned players, Ultimate Poker made the decision to cut ties.
"As of late Thursday night, May 9th, Ultimate Poker discontinued the use of all services from Iovation," a statement posted by Ultimate Poker on the TwoPlusTwo poker forum read. "We understand that there were concerns among some of our customers, we hope this makes our players feel more comfortable."
The Nevada Gaming Commission will now vote today in a decision that could see approval for Iovation as a state-licensed operator for geolocation services. Stay tuned to PokerNews for the result of that decision.
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