Cobalt Gets License to Host Online Gambling Apps in Las Vegas Data Center update from September 2014

Nevada’s Cobalt Data Centers is now authorized to host odds, bets and other regulated gambling applications in its Cheyenne data center in northwest Las Vegas.

Gambling applications are a big potential boost for Nevada data centers. It is a massive sector that has predominantly been relegated to offshore hosting in the past. A trusted in-state data center goes a long way in legitimizing what has been a fringe, albeit huge industry. Nevada broke ground for online gaming nationally, with new laws allowing online poker passed in February of 2013.

Cobalt is now a Registered Hosting Center, pursuant to the regulations of the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board (NGCB), meaning gaming licensees can host within Cobalt. Cobalt has proven its best practices for securing, operating and scaling gaming infrastructure.

Online gambling is projected to be a $7.4 billion business in the U.S. by 2017, according to researchers at H2 Gaming Capital, who say Nevada will represent about $400 million of that total.

“Some of the biggest casinos on the Strip already trust Cobalt to host their non-gaming applications,” said Jeff Brown, CEO, Cobalt Data Centers. “With our NGCB registration, Cobalt becomes the one-stop, full-service hosting partner for licensees and unlocks all sorts of strategic options for an industry so vital to our state. This is an exciting and progressive leap forward for gaming in Nevada.”

Gaming IT service provider NetEffect colocates within the facility. “NetEffect understands the high bar necessary to be NGCB accredited,” said Jeff Grace, CEO, NetEffect. “We were the first to receive an IT Service Provider license from the Commission in 2012. We’re very happy to have a partner in Cobalt who can host the complex applications that we manage for our gaming clients.”

The services are restricted to players at least 21 years old and physically located in Nevada. Station Gaming (Ultimate Poker) and Caesar’s (World Series of Poker) were the first companies to launch legal online poker operations in Nevada.

Cobalt’s data center was commissioned in 2013. The company provided a look into the 34,000-square-foot 5.5 megawatt facility following the ribbon cutting.

The Nevada Online Gaming Commission also conducted rigorous inspections of both Switch and ViaWest facilities and determined they too met requirements necessary for mission critical gaming data.

Cobalt is sponsoring the Gaming & Leisure Rountable at the Red Rock Resort to help it get the word out.