Want to legally place a bet on a sporting event within the U.S. state of Nevada? There’s an app for that. The Nevada Caming Commission has approved a smartphone application that would allow players to engage in sports betting using their mobile phones.

The app, designed by the Leroy Group, lets Nevada residents place sports bets on their Blackberry phone. Only the Blackberry app has been approved so far, with the Android app pending approval. The key roadblock to approval was the need to convince the Gaming Commission that the app’s technology was sufficient to verify that the person using the phone was actually physically located within the state of Nevada when placing the bet. That is important because sports betting is illegal in most U.S. states.

The Interstate Wire Act of 1961 makes it illegal to use a phone or “wire communication facility” to place an interstate or international bet on any sporting event or contest. That makes any online sports betting illegal if it crosses state lines, because that would make it subject to the federal “interstate” law. With the activity confined to Nevada’s borders, though, the federal Wire Act lacks jurisdiction in Nevada.

John English, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Public Affairs for American Wagering, who was involved with the project, is excited that the gambling app was approved. “The Nevada regulators placed significant challenges on American Wagering to provide a means of offering account wagering on a mobile device whereby we could verify that the bettor was in the state,” he said. He then triumphantly added that “we rose to the challenge and succeeded.”

Laws and regulations often build upon other laws and regulations. What starts as something small snowballs into something much larger, for better or worse. That being the case, allowing online gambling via a sports betting app may pave the way for Nevada to allow all forms of online sports betting and, eventually, all forms of online gambling. It may take some time, but government regulations rarely stay where they started. They tend to branch out and expand. Doing so in this case could help Nevada become the major online gambling hub for the United States.

If there’s one thing the government knows how to do, it’s take money from others. Two different government agencies saw fit to fine the Palms Resort Casino and the casino had to pay a total of $100,000 in a settlement. And what did the casino do to get these fines? Well, nothing, except allow two tournaments to take place on their premises.

The Palms Resort Casino paid a $75,000 fine to the Nevada Gaming Commission and a $25,000 fine to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This all came about after the state’s attorney general’s office received complains about two poker tournaments in 2007 that were held by third parties at the resort. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the tournaments did not register with the state’s gambling regulators prior to the events. The Palms Resort, by virtue of allowing the tournaments to take place on their property, is responsible for them, according to the NGC and NGCB.

Both tournaments came under fire for unpaid prizes. The United States Poker League hosted a tournament called the Poker Bowl. It was a team-based event that featured several famous professional poker players. After the tournament, however, the league found itself out of money and needed to sell off their assets. The tournament winners were never paid. The Palms, in a show of goodwill, stepped in and paid the $450,416 in prize money to the deserving players out of their own pocket, even though they were not the ones responsible for giving out the prizes. That, of course, wasn’t good enough for the government, who had to go to the trouble of investigating the claim. Therefore, they fined the Palms Resort Casino anyway.

The other complaint is about a tournament organized by Michael Eakman and Associates. The tournament was organized to benefit the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada. The tournament winnings did eventually get paid to the Community Center, but it took four months to do so. Again, this delay was caused by Michael Eakman and Associates, not the Palms Resort.

The Palms Resort Casino, despite being unfairly targeted by government bullies, did not fight the fines and paid them immediately upon notification. It was a big win for fans of bullying, greedy government agencies everywhere.