Inside Asian Gaming

October 2013 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 39 FEATURES Caesars Acquisition Co., a new entity that will own stock in its online gaming business and two casinos in Las Vegas and the city of Baltimore in the US state of Maryland. The online business finally took flight last month with the launch of a real-money poker site in Nevada marketed under the company’s World Series of Poker brand. The launch makes Caesars the second operator to offer Internet poker in Nevada, one of three states (Delaware andNew Jersey are theothers) to legalizeonlinegamblingon an intrastate basis to avoid possible conflicts with federal law. Thus, Nevada law restricts the player pool to residents or participants physically present in the state, which has some major operators and analysts questioning the prospects, given the state’s relatively small population. Nevada also limits the game offering to poker. State officials, meanwhile, are reported to be in talks with their counterparts in other states aimed at establishing multi-state networks to increase the player base. However, Mitch Garber, chief executive officer of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, says its profitability doesn’t depend on them. “Nevada will have a very healthy business on its own,” he said. Reports are that Caesars collected the names of thousands of prospective players at a recent WSOP tournament in Las Vegas and plans to market its site on television, billboards, banners and on room keys at its Nevada hotels. Plans also call for cross-promoting the site with Caesars’ nationwide Total Rewards player loyalty program. And unlike Ultimate Poker, controlled by Las Vegas locals giant Station Casinos, which launched the first site in Nevada in April, Caesars’ will offer Mac- friendly compatibility. Octavius Tower at Caesars Palace Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber