Maryland’s top casino operator Maryland Live! has inked a free-play online gaming deal with systems and software outfit GameAccount Network.

The new Simulated Gaming offering is expected to launch sometime in Q2 of this year via MarylandLiveCasino.com. The system will be integrated with the casino’s Live! Rewards program, allowing players to earn loyalty points via online play.

Maryland Live! president Robert Norton said GameAccount had successfully pitched the merits of its Simulated Gaming product and also “demonstrated their regulated gaming capability in New Jersey.” While there’s no indication that Maryland will join New Jersey in regulating real-money online and mobile play anytime soon, Norton said the GameAccount deal “provides us with a strategic partnership to execute both options.”

The two parties in this deal are far from strangers. In 2011, Maryland Live! inked an online free-play deal with nLive, which at the time was a joint venture of GameAccount and Australian slots operator Aristocrat but Aristocrat bought out GameAccount one year later.