NJ iGaming Signups Hover Just Above 100k
For those interested in the nascent New Jersey online wagering market, Monday is often the most interesting day of the week.
That is because it is on Monday that the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement releases player signup data for the week for the state’s brand-new real money Internet poker and casino web sites.
The story this Monday, with the Christmas and New Years holidays cutting into the middle of last week as well as this one, was that signups tapered off a bit.
Total signups for New Jersey online poker and online casino sites stood at 126,231 as of yesterday.
Christmas and New Years holidays put small slowdown on rate
In the weeks since the Garden State became the third state in the U.S. to see the start of real money Internet betting – iGaming there launched in soft play mode on November 21 with the full-scale start occurring on November 26 – the signup rate has averaged about 20,000 players per week.
It should be noted, however, that that number represents total signups, meaning that individuals who create accounts across multiple sites in fact will be counted multiple times.
Last week, slightly fewer than 17,000 new accounts were created, just a tad below the average. Considering that almost everything slows down surrounding the year end holidays, it comes as little surprise that not as many people were forming new accounts at the sites in recent days.
Players still reporting variety of issues with sites
In terms of playability, New Jersey-based players are still taking to online poker forum Two Plus Two and other venues to complain about problems they are having with issues like geolocation, depositing, and server crashes that log players off in the middle of hands.
Some lingering issues, such as those having to do with players not registering as being in the Garden State when they are in fact within state lines, continue to be addressed by operators.
Other concerns, specifically recurrent depositing issues, may take a few months to work out as banks must adjust payment processing to accommodate the new United States online betting industry in locations where it is legal (so far just New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware).
Governor Christie wants to see better numbers out of Atlantic City next year
By all accounts, the early weeks of regulated online betting in New Jersey have largely been a success.
Officials and casino operators in Atlantic City are no doubt keeping their fingers crossed that things continue to go well.
By law, all online wagering operations in the state are linked to land-based casinos in Atlantic City, a burg that has long been struggling as gamblers have driven across states lines to newer casino properties in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
Earlier this month, New Jersey’s Republican Governor, Chris Christie, who in November was reelected to a second term as head of the Garden State, remarked that he would begin considering allowing casinos to be built in other parts of the state if revenue numbers do not improve in Atlantic City in 2014.
The city, once the east coast’s answer to Las Vegas, is in year four of a five year reprieve. Christie warned that after 2014, he may be much more open to casino development at the Meadowlands and other locations around the state should faltering Atlantic City fail to right its ship, according to an article in the Press of Atlantic City.
Online betting is a big part of the city’s plan to improve cash flow. While the newly-minted New Jersey Internet wagering market has yet to prove itself, if everything goes the way the Governor, the casinos, and others are hoping, it will usher in a new era in Atlantic City alongside a slew of younger, more tech-savvy bettors.
