Online gambling is set for a full rollout at six Atlantic City casinos following their successful completion of New Jersey’s five-day ‘soft play’ trial period. On Monday, the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) announced that 13 online operations linked to the Borgata, Bally’s, Caesars, Tropicana, Tump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal casinos were good to go for wide-scale real-money online gambling action. (Best Thanksgiving ever?)
Of the seven casinos that had been approved for the ‘soft play’ launch, only the Golden Nugget’s online operations remain “restricted to limited play.” The Nugget was a late addition to the DGE’s soft play launch list, and DGE director David Rebuck used a Monday conference call to announce that the Nugget’s final approval was simply a “matter of time.” Nugget VP Thomas Winter said the casino’s site would likely go live in about a week, or however long it took the company to “improve the customer experience.” Winter suggested it was more important to get things right than it was to be first out of the gate.
Rebuck has claimed that his greatest challenge has been dealing with the sheer number of companies clamoring to take part in the New Jersey online market. No wonder, given that “well over 10k” players had registered online within the trial period’s first three days. To put that in perspective, Nevada’s two operational online poker sites currently boast around a combined 500 players. Even Rebuck admitted to being “surprised” by both the “volume of the registrants and the amount of play engaged in.” Both figures are expected to continue to climb, as the approved online sites had been barred from marketing their wares during the testing phase, but the marketing gloves are now coming off.
Rebuck defended the widespread geolocation issues that had frustrated many players during the trial period, saying that the systems were “performing as required from a regulatory perspective.” Despite reports that some players were rejected even though they were attempting to register online from inside the same Atlantic City casinos operating the sites, Rebuck insisted he wasn’t willing to “put the state at risk” by relaxing the constraints. Rebuck suggested the onus was on the operators to fine tune the system to enable a smoother experience while still confining play to within the state’s borders.
Rebuck also addressed the difficulties many players faced in attempting to fund their online gambling accounts. Rebuck acknowledged that the current reality was “challenging” but insisted that the DGE was working to alleviate the financial institutions’ concerns and expressed confidence that the systems would adapt over time. For what it’s worth, Rebuck noted that VISA was proving far more reluctant than Mastercard to process New Jersey online gambling transactions. Thanks for nothing, Morgan Freeman.
