New Jersey iGaming Launch Just Days Away
Fans of online gambling who have looked forward to being able to access real money betting web sites in the state of New Jersey all year haven’t too much longer to wait.
The state will launch its wagering sites in just three days, on November 21, in “soft launch” or testing mode, with the rooms set to be in full-scale operative five days later on November 26.
State became third in the nation to pass regulation
Last February, the Garden State became the third in the United States to enact a law allowing residents to place some type of Internet wager.
Nevada was the first when it passed a law to allow for online poker only back in 2011. Delaware was number two and like New Jersey, a full suite of online casino games are on offer there in addition to real money online poker. The Delaware Lottery oversees the marketplace, which got its start on Halloween.
Nevada currently has two online poker rooms open to those who are located in the state: Ultimate Poker, which launched last April, and Caesars-run WSOP.com, which followed suit in late September.
When New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who two weeks ago was re-elected to a second term and who continues to shrug off reports that he is gunning for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, signed the state’s iGaming bill into law earlier this year, he did so in large part to aid Atlantic City’s flagging gambling economy.
Struggling Atlantic City has high hopes for turnaround
Atlantic City, which once was the foremost gambling center east of the Mississippi River, has experienced revenue declines year after year, after casino revenue there hit a high back in 2006.
Since then, there have generally been two kinds of news stories coming out of Atlantic City: bad and really bad.
The city’s twelve land-based casinos, facing pressure from nearby states such as Pennsylvania, where gambling expansion has managed to put quite the hurt on Atlantic City, are hoping that the commencement of online wagering in New Jersey will usher in a new era, not to mention a new source of revenue.
Industry predicted to generate big revenue
New Jersey online gambling is predicted to be big business. With their tiny populations, Nevada and Delaware’s markets provide only a small pool of players, an issue that could be addressed in the future with interstate online poker compacts, especially as online gambling regulation begins to happen in more states.
New Jersey, however, has a large population and also could be poised to take advantage of online gambling tourism. Though it remains to be seen whether online bettors from other states are willing to visit New Jersey for the sole purpose of accessing real money online gambling web sites, industry analysts have put the potential of the industry there at $1 billion in annual revenue on the high end.
