NEVADAN AT WORK: Seeming opposites attract to develop online poker platform

Talk about opposites attracting.

Lawrence Vaughan was in his mid-20s, a self-taught computer programmer, who had an idea on how to make Internet poker work in Nevada. A mutual friend introduced him to South Point owner Michael Gaughan, 71, who built the Coast Casinos brand and is considered one of the Las Vegas casino industry’s pioneer operators.

Within two days, they created the basis for the online poker business Real Gaming.

The website launched in February as Nevada’s third real-money Internet gambling operation. Real Gaming, which is affiliated with the South Point, is in its testing and soft-launch phase, which could take up to 180 days.

Real Gaming has not produced any advertising nor has the website promoted its ties to the Gaughan-owned casino.

Still, Vaughan said the website has performed exactly as he and Gaughan expected.

“Our customers know the South Point brand,” Vaughan said. “We want to be extremely quiet and deal with a small, but loyal, customer base and accelerate from there.”

Once the testing period ends, Vaughan said Real Gaming will launch a marketing campaign. But he is hesitant to mention specifics.

“There will be some tie-ins with the South Point and some cross promotions,” he said.

Vaughan lived with the idea long before Nevada adopted its initial online poker regulations in 2011.

After high school, he dabbled in the production side of the Las Vegas advertising industry while teaching himself computer programming.

He created an online employment website, Jobbi.com, that attracted more than 100,000 people to submit their résumés and job qualifications in its first year. Vaughan still owns Jobbi.com with several partners, including Las Vegas advertising executive Sig Rogich.

Vaughan also started to tinker with online poker concepts and programs.

In 2011, a friend introduced Vaughan to Gaughan, who was the first casino owner to launch a free-play poker site in Nevada. He was exploring real-money online poker, which appeared to be forthcoming for the state.

It didn’t take long for the two to jell.

“Honestly, I think I had an actual offer in front of me within 48 hours,” Vaughan said.

The two jointly own Real Gaming and Vaughan serves as the CEO. The business employs nearly 50 workers and is located away from the South Point in the western part of the valley. South Point’s interactive gaming operation was licensed by Nevada in summer 2012. It was thought the casino would be first in the market. However, Station Casinos’ Ultimate Poker launched a year ago, followed by Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s WSOP.com last fall.

Vaughan is happy Real Gaming waited.

“No one had run this type of business before,” Vaughan said. “Regulations changes things, like development time lines.”

Question: What delayed Real Gaming’s launch?

Answer: I always thought that our version needed to be a Web-based application. That’s our core differential. We’re available on every platform — PC, Mac, Linux, tablets, iPhones, iPads, etc. — because we are Web-based. That’s one of the things we spent additional time working on with regulators and the test labs.

Question: What have you learned from operating on all platforms?

Answer: We’re seeing a lot of iPad play. I reached out to one of our customers, who had been playing the most hands of anyone, and he told us he was playing on an iPad from a poker room here in town. I’ve done some random pull-ups on geo-location to see where people are playing from. They are not just playing from their homes. They are out and about. I think over time we’re going to see the casual gamer become primarily mobile.

Question: Was there disappointment when Real Gaming wasn’t the first to market?

Answer: We were mistakenly too vocal about it. It was our intent to be the first out, but we sort of realigned our vision to be about being on every device. (The delay) made me realize this is a long game and we’re at the beginning of a new era of gaming. It really doesn’t matter if you were first or not and it doesn’t matter if you trip out the door. All this is going to change with education. New customers will come out and define a different type of experience. It will be an evolution over the next couple of years.

Question: What is Michael Gaughan’s role in the business?

Answer: He understands the implication of the technology and I don’t mean that in a general sense. He’s extremely sharp, one of the sharpest people I know. He fully understands what we’re doing. He doesn’t know how to program, but he understands the business better than you would expect from someone from the outside.

Question: What was your first meeting like with Michael Gaughan?

Answer: I grew up in this city and spent time as a kid at some of his properties. And now, I’m working so closely with him. It is strange. He was talking with people about online poker and I knew he was a straight shooter. I came in and explained the vision of where we were going with the technology. He saw how it could be taken into real-money gaming. Our visions aligned.

Question: What are the current and future plans for Real Gaming?

Answer: Nevada is the test bed to show and explain some of the things we can do with the business to other jurisdictions. We’ve only been operating for a little more than a month and we’ve been so quiet, some people didn’t know we were out there. It’s been perfect actually, allowing us to do things like focus on customer service.

Our goal is to expand jurisdictionaly and partner with the right people. We like what’s happening right now with the compact (between Nevada and Delaware) going forward.

Question: Do you think the competition in Nevada will increase?

Answer: I would be surprised if no one else came into the market. Right now, the numbers are not really the carrot being dangled, saying come and get this pot of gold. It is my belief it is an educational thing and the market will grow. (Online poker) will become a casual daily thing that people do. We’re just at the beginning.

Question: Did you play much online poker?

Answer: I was on the PokerStars and Full Tilt sites back in the day, but I never played seriously. For me, I was thinking how they could be simplified and brought to a broader audience and I thought of ways to do it.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.