Can Online Poker Save Las Vegas?

Everybody has heard by now just how bad the economy is in Las Vegas.  Unemployment is among the highest of all major U.S. cities, the housing market was ground zero for the housing collapse, and the homeless population has tripled in just a few years.  While just five years ago Las Vegas was a boomtown, some observers now think that Las Vegas may never come back to its glory days.  The biggest problem for Las Vegas is that it failed to diversify.

Many non casino companies will not consider Las Vegas for any type of business.  That is the case even though Las Vegas offers one of the most business friendly environments in the U.S.  The problem is that many perceive that the casinos run the city and they do not want to build a business somewhere that the gambling industry has such a stranglehold.  With that being the case, there is little Las Vegas can do in terms of diversifying – or is there?

In December, the Nevada Gaming Control Board passed online poker regulations.  These regulations will allow Nevada gaming companies to offer online poker to players within the state’s borders.  The hope is that many states will follow Nevada, and there will be a large national market for the product.

Online poker is a much different business than the traditional brick and mortar gaming business.  Online poker requires a lot of well educated employees to help launch it, and help keeping it online.  Online poker will require software engineers, database managers, content managers, website designers and online security, all of which are lacking for the most part in Las Vegas.  Most Las Vegas employees work in gaming, hospitality, government or construction.  This could create the next boom for Las Vegas.

The Nevada gaming companies will likely need to look outside the city to fill many of their job positions.  Those positions will likely be filled by younger applicants.  These younger applicants will fall into the category with few children and a lot of disposable income.  The lack of children is important because that means there would be little burden on the school system.  The disposable income is important because that type of income is great for an economy like Las Vegas.  There could be thousands of jobs filled by these types of applicants.

Even though many Las Vegas residents will not fall into this category, they will still benefit.  As new residents move in, they will help fill some of the vacant real estate.  This will not only help the housing market, but will create jobs doing so in real estate, moving services and durable goods.  These new technology jobs will also cause spending to rise in the city, creating jobs that fit the current Las Vegas skills.  The new jobs will also generate new sales taxes that will help the state through its fiscal crisis.  Some of these jobs will also generate other tax revenue such as car tags, gaming taxes, and gas taxes.

While current Las Vegas residents may not think that they care about online poker, it may bring on the next boom.  Every little bit helps in a city that has led the U.S. in foreclosures for over four years.