New Jersey continues to take baby steps towards establishing an online casino, actually it’s more of crawl, as the saying goes, you have to crawl before you walk, and with the approval of Senator Raymond J. Lesniak’s bill S490 and its companion S11, by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the next step is to await a full Senate vote.
The extremely knowledgeable and highly respected Michelle Minton, who also is part of the CalvinAyre.com team, saw this coming a mile away. As Minton reported last week, “though federal attempts to legalize online gambling have seen little progress in the last year, states’ efforts have shown much more promise” as noted in an article in OpenMarket.org. Minton’s contention certainly remains true in New Jersey.
The New Jersey bill will permit the offering of Poker, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, craps, big six wheel, slot machines, minibaccarat, red dog, pai gow, and any variations or composites of such games. The bill also leaves room for the commission to approve other games in the future so long as the game is found to be “compatible with the public interest and to be suitable for casino use after such appropriate test or experimental period as the commission may deem appropriate.”
According to Minton, “It shouldn’t have taken a budget crisis to move this forward and the state should not be subsidizing the horse racing industry, it is a step toward freedom for individuals who wish to gamble. If other states follow New Jersey’s lead and legalized Internet gambling within their borders, states could enter into agreements that allow residents to gamble online at each other’s online casinos. It isn’t perfect, but it is better than a blanket ban.” It will definitely be interesting to see just how much progress this bill will make considering it could raise up to $250 million in gross revenue and $55 million in taxes per year for the state.
