Bally to provide online poker system for Stratosphere, sister casinos 

Bally to provide online poker system for Stratosphere, sister casinos

Sep 24, 2012 (Menafn - Las Vegas Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Las Vegas-based casino supplier Bally Technologies Inc. today said it signed a deal to provide its online gaming platform to the Stratosphere and its sister properties in Southern Nevada.

Bally was licensed as an online poker system provider this summer by the Nevada Gaming Commission. ACEP Interactive LLC has been similarly licensed as an online poker operator.

Nevada regulators will need to provide the final approval before online poker systems provided by Bally, ACEP and competitors go live. They're still in the technical testing stage.

ACEP expects to launch a social gaming initiative this year followed by real-money online poker next year.

ACEP Interactive is the online arm of American Casino & Entertainment Properties LLC, owner of the Stratosphere and two Arizona Charlie's casinos in Las Vegas and the Aquarius in Laughlin.

"We are pleased to be involved in the leading edge of this emerging segment in the U.S.," American Casino & Entertainment Properties CEO Frank Riolo said in a statement. "This partnership with Bally will allow us to establish a play-for-free poker site by the end of the year, which we plan to use to further enhance our brands and enable us to be poised to launch a real-money poker site at such a time as permitted."

Terms of the Bally/ACEP deal weren't immediately disclosed.

In June, Bally said its first iGaming platform had gone live, powering a free-play poker website in partnership with the Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas, Laughlin and Atlantic City.

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