A Las Vegas bank has taken a significant step forward in its push to capitalize on the rise of cashless payments in gambling.
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The Nevada Gaming Control Board’s recent approval of BoltBetz, a cashless gaming system supported by the $1.3 billion-asset GBank, sets the stage for a wider rollout, even though initial plans are currently limited to just nine Las Vegas taverns.
The BoltBetz app, which is expected to be available through Google Play and Apple’s App Store, allows users to transfer funds from a digital wallet controlled by GBank to an eligible slot machine. Winnings can be loaded back into players’ GBank-maintained accounts, which will provide the bank with a new and potentially lucrative source of cheap deposits.
The initial rollout of BoltBez is a possible first step “to opening a new source of non-interest-bearing deposits for GBank,” Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tim Coffey wrote in a research note. He added that such deposits “could be meaningful” to GBank’s future earnings.
BoltBetz was launched in 2023 by Bryan Lindsey and Todd Nigro, whose father, Ed Nigro, serves as chairman and CEO of GBank’s holding company, GBank Financial Holdings Inc. GBank will manage funds linked to the BoltBetz system.
The Gaming Control Board’s initial approval of BoltBetz marks a modest start to what appears to be an ambitious rollout plan. Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has joined BoltBetz as a strategic investor and promotional partner.
And the gambling app has announced partnership agreements with Terribles, which operates more than 2,700 of gaming machines in Nevada, as well as Alliance Gaming, a resort developer.
While there are other cashless gaming platforms, none currently include a bank as a central partner, and none can match BoltBetz’ ability to instantly move funds from players’ accounts to slot machines and then back again, Ed Nigro told American Banker on Monday.
“Banks are best and safest, and offer the most protection to the consumer,” Nigro said.
“We look forward to providing these seamless solutions to licensed gaming slot operators in Nevada and across the United States,” Nigro said last week in a press release.
On a conference call with investors in October, Nigro said he expects significant benefits from GBank’s partnership with BoltBetz to start accruing in the second half of 2026.
“The players really like the program, the gaming operator really likes the idea of not having to deal with cash, and we like it because we’re going to obviously build some significant deposits,” Nigro said on the conference call.
GBank is “upgrading significantly our internal technology capabilities” to handle the spike in transaction volume expected to occur as BoltBetz gets up and running, Nigro added.
Winning the okay from Nevada’s Gaming Control Board likely gives BoltBetz a head start when it’s ready to expand to other states, said Braden Perry, a co-founder and partner at the Kenneyhertz Perry law firm in Mission Woods, Kansas.
Perry acknowledged that there’s no reciprocity between states, which means gambling companies must apply for regulatory approval in every state where they want to operate.
“However, one of the questions is where are you licensed elsewhere,” Perry told American Banker. “If you’re licensed in Nevada and have a positive record, that certainly is persuasive.”
He added that BoltBetz “isn’t trying to find the least restrictive location to start. They’re looking for the most” restrictive.
Though banks have historically shied away from involvement with gambling due largely to regulatory and reputational concerns, the barriers are beginning to crumble as gaming’s legal status changes, and its popularity increases. The $3.2 billion-asset MVB Financial in Fairmont, West Virginia, has garnered attention for
According to Perry, BoltBetz’ operation with physical slot machines appears to work in a broadly similar way to how payments are handled in online sports betting. “It’s all done on apps, and it’s all done cashless,” he said.
Moreover, bringing cashless payments to traditional gambling, which has always been “cash-heavy,” may have important regulatory benefits, including from an anti-money-laundering perspective, Perry added.
“Having a client that is using a cashless gaming system through a banking portal or at least a banking relationship, you gain much more visibility than from a client winning cash at a casino and making the typical cash deposits, and who knows if those are accurate or not.”
GBank’s gambling connections extend beyond BoltBetz. The company offers a Visa credit card tailored for gaming and sports-betting consumers. Card transaction volume through the first nine months of 2025 topped $300 million.
GBank plans to use deposits resulting from the BoltBetz partnership to support its banking business, especially its national Small Business Administration lending program. GBank originated more than $550 million of loans under the agency’s flagship 7(a) loan guarantee program during the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2025.
Nigro said Monday that he’d like to see GBank’s SBA origination total top $600 million in the 2026 fiscal year. He would also like the company to hold more 7(a) loans on its balance sheet. Currently, GBank sells the lion’s share of its production to secondary market investors.
In many ways, gaming represents a natural market for the 17-year-old GBank. Ed Nigro, who has served as chairman since GBank’s founding, has deep ties to the casino industry. He managed hotel-casino operations for the Del Webb Corp., and before that for the Howard Hughes Organization.
Nigro’s father, Gen. Edward H. Nigro, moved the family to Las Vegas and became a casino and resort executive after retiring from the Air Force in 1967.
The younger Ed Nigro, who has served as GBank’s executive chairman since its founding, was