Kiosk cuts in Nevada for William Hill
Will Hill Nevada

Punters are recommended to bet using their mobiles.

Being one of the four US states where sports betting is legal, Nevada hosts several land-based, online and mobile sportsbooks.

Until recently, punters could walk into a number of bars and restaurants in Las Vegas and play the slots or place their bets on sporting events. One of the companies that had set up betting kiosks in such places was leading UK bookie William Hill.

A new law, however, bans sports betting at so-called ‘restricted license’ venues, i.e. those places that can have no more than 15 slots.

As a result, the company will discontinue the operation of half of the 84 such kiosks it has been operating. Customers can still use them to top up their William Hill Mobile sports betting accounts.

“We are repositioning them from kiosks to mobile sports deposit hotspot. You can’t make a bet or withdraw money, but it will accept cash deposits,” said Dan Shapiro, William Hill Business Development Director in Las Vegas.

“We recognize that mobile is the wave of the future. We rely on mobile phones for almost everything these days. We switched a lot of these customers,” added Shapiro.

The ban does not cause a measurable financial damage to bookies, as the revenue generated by these kiosks has been minimal anyway.

William Hill also offers mobile casino games, but it is not yet licensed to do so in Nevada, so the full range of its mobile offers is not available to US players.