The great experiment is over. Ultimate Gaming, the brainchild of Tom Breitling, one of the former owners of the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and an internet entrepreneur, wanted to build the first legal online gaming site in the U.S. from the ground up. That dream ended last week when the company closed down its Nevada poker site, Ultimate Poker, just two months after it withdrew from the New Jersey iGaming market.
“As has been the case in other jurisdictions,” said Breitling, “online poker revenues in Nevada have fallen far short of original projections. Moreover, the state-by-state approach to online gaming has created an extremely cost-prohibitive and challenging operating environment. These factors have combined to make the path to profitability very difficult and uncertain. Consequently, we have had to cease operations.
Ultimate Poker became the first legal online gaming site when it debuted in late April 2013. With funding from Station Casinos, Breitling purchased Cyberarts, a San Francisco-based systems company, and built the Ultimate Gaming site from the ground up. In all other instances, the online gaming sites have used existing technology proven in other jurisdictions.
Ultimate Gaming’s withdrawal from the Nevada market leaves Caesars Interactive’s WSOP.com and South Point’s Real Gaming, as the only remain online poker sites in Nevada.
Seth Palansky, a spokesman for Caesars Interactive, said it was “unfortunate” that Ultimate had to shut down.
“There are a lot of good people at Ultimate that worked hard and diligently in that space,” he told Vegas.com. “We haven’t really assessed the impact of their closing on our business, but we should assure the public that we remain fully operational to Nevada residents and visitors. I guess if there’s anything good about this, it’s that hopefully WSOP.com can increase liquidity as a result.”
Nevada’s online poker numbers have been anemic, with only $693,000 won last month. Only once did revenues exceed $1 million—in June when hundreds of poker players were in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker.
Ultimate Poker also had an agreement the Peppermill casino in Reno and four affiliate casinos in Northern Nevada. These websites will shut down, as well.
