Why Nevada’s Latest Compliance Requirements for Online Gaming Matter Far Beyond State Lines

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (the NGCB) has issued Notice #2026-04, providing new guidance with enhanced reporting and due diligence requirements for Nevada gaming licensees and applicants involved in online gaming activities outside Nevada. Broadly, the enhanced requirements are part of the necessary evaluation of the appropriateness and suitability of Online Gaming activities outside Nevada, particularly in light of the dramatic growth and innovative models for internet gambling in recent years, including as the NGCB explicitly calls out in the Notice: “wagering activities found in real money online casinos among other forms of online gaming (Online Gaming).”

While the NGCB guidance specifically applies to Nevada licensees and applicants, including their subsidiaries and affiliates, state gaming regulators across the country continue to consider the implications of grey market Online Gaming activities and their licensees’ interests in any such grey market operations. As such, all Online Gaming companies–in or outside of Nevada–should be aware of the reporting and due diligence requirements in Notice #2026-04 and consider incorporating them into their ongoing compliance programs.

Key Takeaways From the NGCB’s Notice #2026-04

• What Online Gaming activities are covered: The enhanced reporting and due diligence requirements apply to all commercialization models an Online Gaming business may pursue in a given jurisdiction–including B2C operations of Online Gaming, B2B supply of Online Gaming products, and distribution of Online Gaming products through content aggregators. In addition, the jurisdictions that must be reported and subjected to due diligence include jurisdictions where the Online Gaming business is offered, regardless of whether it is offered from within or from outside the given jurisdiction. Finally, licensees and applicants should understand that the NGCB’s definition of “Online Gaming” is worded broadly and vaguely so that it clearly applies to more than just online casino gaming and may include any other form of Online Gaming activities later deemed relevant by the NGCB.
• Immediate and recurring reporting required: All licensees that currently conduct any Online Gaming (B2C or B2B, including through a content aggregator) in any jurisdiction outside Nevada must provide the NGCB with a current and complete list of all such jurisdictions known to a licensee by March 17, 2026. An extension may be available from the Chair upon written request. After this initial report, licensees must include this information in their quarterly Foreign Gaming reports to the NGCB.
• Initial and recurring due diligence required: Licensees must conduct independent, jurisdiction-specific due diligence where they conduct any Online Gaming, and the absence of enforcement activity in a specific jurisdiction is not sufficient to indicate that Online Gaming may be legally conducted in that jurisdiction. Such due diligence is required prior to offering Online Gaming in a given jurisdiction (from within or outside the jurisdiction) and at least every two years thereafter. Licensees must also maintain a record of all such assessments and findings regarding the legality of offering Online Gaming products in each applicable jurisdiction.
• Reliance on contractual partners: Licensees supplying Online Gaming products on a B2B basis or through a content aggregator may rely in part on a partner’s due diligence only if specific contractual protections are in place with the B2B recipient or aggregator (Contractual Partners), including written assurances of compliance, termination rights, and coordination to prevent offerings in prohibited jurisdictions. Licensees remain responsible for due diligence in presumptively prohibited jurisdictions.
• Reporting prohibited jurisdictions: The NGCB expects Licensees to work with their Contractual Partners to ensure the Licensee’s Online Gaming products are not offered in prohibited jurisdictions, including updating each other at least annually on jurisdictions identified as prohibited. Licensees must also report to the NGCB any jurisdiction in which the Licensee or its Contractual Partners have identified as prohibited.
• Presumptively prohibited jurisdictions: The Notice establishes that certain jurisdictions are “presumptively prohibited” if the jurisdiction expressly prohibits Online Gaming and/or has taken intra-jurisdictional or extra-jurisdictional enforcement actions against players or operators. Non-exhaustive examples of such presumptively prohibited jurisdictions are included in the Notice. Overcoming the presumption requires “comprehensive” due diligence that must be thoroughly documented and submitted to the NGCB prior to the commencement (or continuation) of any Online Gaming business in the jurisdiction.
• Ongoing obligations: Licensees are expected to reassess jurisdictions periodically, maintain written records of legality determinations, monitor access to their products, promptly remove products from prohibited jurisdictions, and comply with reporting obligations, including initial and quarterly disclosures to the NGCB regarding jurisdictions where Online Gaming products are offered.

Continuing a Broader Trend

The NGCB’s enhanced requirements are just the latest example of a U.S. state gaming regulator increasing its regulatory focus on the industry’s broader Online Gaming business across all jurisdictions where the business is offered. Other recent examples of increased regulatory focus on extra-jurisdictional Online Gaming activities include:

• New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement: An annual recertification from all internet gaming and online sports wagering platform providers that “none [of their affiliate marketing providers] are engaged in promoting any unregulated or illegal operators that accept United States customers without appropriate licensure,” and
• Michigan Gaming Control Board: An Illegal Gaming Attestation required from Internet Game Content Providers that requires disclosure of the applicant’s current or previous distribution of any internet gaming content (including games of skill or chance) to anyone offering Online Gaming to individuals inside or outside the U.S. without a license in the jurisdictions where offered.

Bottom Line

The NGCB’s guidance reinforces the need for proactive, well-documented diligence of the legality in all jurisdictions in which Online Gaming is offered, whether directly or indirectly, and whether from within or from outside the jurisdiction. Licensees should reassess current Online Gaming activities, evaluate jurisdictional exposure, and review internal compliance frameworks to ensure alignment with the NGCB’s expectations. Experienced gaming counsel can play a key role in conducting jurisdictional assessments, structuring compliant commercialization models, and engaging with regulators as these requirements continue to evolve.

Ballard Spahr’s Gaming Group advises clients across the full spectrum of federal, state, tribal, and local gaming laws and represents gaming operators and companies doing business with casinos in navigating the industry’s complex regulatory landscape.

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