The final decisions will be made by the Nevada Gaming Commission on January 24.
Golden Gaming owns Golden Route Operations, the state’s largest slot route operator, and PT’s Entertainment Group, a tavern company, along with three casinos in Pahrump, Nevada.
Rome-based Lottomatica owns subsidiaries around the world, including the slot machine maker Spielo, with US headquarters in Las Vegas and GTECH, headquartered in Rhode Island.
With operators, service providers and even an affiliate having secured licenses related to online poker, industry leaders are hoping to launch of the first real-money sites in Nevada sometime this spring. It is still unclear, however, which site will be the first to go live or whether several sites will launch at once.
Some state gaming officials also are pushing for compacts that would allow for state-to-state gaming, wherever it is regulated.