Following a glimmer of hope amongst the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the Nevada Gaming Commission has rejected a proposal to enable casino gamblers to debit their bank cards for slot machine vouchers by means of EDITH technology. Called Electronic Debit Interactive Terminal Housing, EDITH was criticized for issuing cashless betting vouchers, thereby essentially making it a slot machine that accepts debit cards.

Proponents of EDITH, like former Gaming Control Board member, Scott Scherer, say that EDITH is a step away from being a debit-fitted casino slot. In actuality, he is right. EDITH is a stand-alone machine - more like an ATM than a slot machine - that issues slot vouchers instead of cash. Once the voucher is fed into a slot machine, a cashable voucher can be reissued any time from the slot machine. Furthermore, Nevada casinos allow ATM's on the casino floor already. So what's the difference right?

Scherer, who provides legal representation for the developers of EDITH - Global Cash Access and International Game Technology - say the problem is that the Nevada Gaming Commission is establishing a "need requirement" before any new gaming technology is given a green light. By doing so, Scherer says it will hinder the continued growth of the betting industry - something which Nevada currently needs to be critically thinking about with all of the construction projects in the works.

Gaming Commission Chairman, Pete Bernhard, indeed reflected this "need requirement" referred to by Scherer, when he stated that casinos have not sought out the technology and that gamblers have not show much interest either. EDITH is currently being tested at Casino Pauma in San Diego, where results so far have proven favorable.

However, fears of potential problem gambling are casting a shadow on EDITH. The Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling testified that not enough clinical research has been done on the technology, which seems to be the general sentiments of the Commission, whose ruling overturns a recent ruling by the Gaming Control Board who agreed to study EDITH more if the Commission offered its support. Despite the setback, EDITH will likely continue to be pushed, just as ticket-in ticket-out machines took several years to get approved.