Borgata Wins First License in New Jersey
As excitement about the upcoming launch of real-money online gambling in the state of New Jersey seems to be reaching a fevered pitch, this week it was revealed which company will receive the very first license.
The Borgata, Atlantic City’s most prestigious hotel and casino, which is owned jointly by Boyd Gaming and MGM, is the first to get the green-light from the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement, it was widely reported in the media this week.
Market is scheduled to launch at the end of November
Last week New Jersey regulators confirmed that a launch date that has been floating around for some time – November 26 – was indeed the date that New Jersey would become the second state in the nation to launch real-money betting sites.
Nevada was the first U.S. state to offer regulated online wagering; games there went live last April. Unlike in New Jersey, where a wide variety of online casinos games will be on offer in addition to online poker, only the latter is permitted. The first site to launch was Ultimate Poker, which did so in late April.
The second, Caesars’ WSOP.com real-money online poker site, opened its virtual doors last month. The World Series of Poker site operated by Caesars is, thus far, the only Mac compatible real money U.S. online poker room; Ultimate Poker currently is not available to Mac users.
When sites are live in New Jersey, it will mark the beginning a new era for casinos in Atlantic City, which has been hard-hit by competition from other states as it struggles to keep pace with newer casinos in nearby Pennsylvania and Maryland, amongst other places.
The Borgata’s chief executive officer and president, Tom Ballance, echoed the hope that many have invested in the state’s burgeoning iGaming industry, saying via a statement, “We believe online gaming is an exciting growth opportunity for New Jersey’s gaming industry, one that will generate significant benefits for the state as New Jersey assumes a leadership role in this emerging form of gaming entertainment.”
License is only for Borgata, not bwin.party
It should be clarified that the go ahead has only been given to the Borgata. Though it has partnered with Gibraltar-based bwin.party Digital Entertainment to operate the back end of its New Jersey-facing iGaming venture, Borgata’s license only applies to that business. Under the terms of the state’s online wagering law, signed last February, only land-based casino properties in Atlantic City are awarded actual operating licenses; other providers are given separate classes of licenses.
Though it is not publicly know if bwin.party has applied for such licensing from New Jersey regulators, it is doubtful that Borgata would have been given the very first license by the DGE if bwin.party was not vetted and ready to go by the November 26 launch date.
It goes without saying that regulators have a vested interest in seeing the smoothest possible launch of the New Jersey real-money online wagering market, meaning that we can only assume companies providing ancillary services to the industry will have been thoroughly scrutinized by the time games go live at 9 a.m. on November 26.
