You’d figure that, once folks in America realized the inevitable about the arcane federal online gambling laws and the industry’s potential as a moneymaker to fill government coffers, the state of Nevada would be among the very first to try fully legalizing online gaming in the state. And late last week, the first steps were taken in this logical direction, as the Nevada state assembly unanimously passed a bill which defined a licensing process for internet poker providers who could supply state citizens with legal gaming.

Though the prevailing law regarding online gaming in the U.S., the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, disallows most such playing under federal law, a proviso in the act allows individual states the possibility to allow online casinos, poker and the like in an intrastate system. The Nevada bill would appear to be the first step for that state to implement such a network.

While it may seem paradoxical that Nevada is moving forward with the plan just a few weeks after federal authorities cracked down on a handful of huge-name sites such as PokerStars, it seems likely that lawmakers simply want prime offenders of certain to be removed from the playing field before the seemingly inevitable licensing process sweeping Europe begins in the U.S.A. (Think of the end of the Prohibition Era, a time guiding by moral rules about as silly as those dictating gambling rules in the ‘States today.)