17,000 Players Use NJ iGaming Sites During Soft Launch
It has been three days since New Jersey flipped the ‘open’ sign on its brand-new online betting industry, and so far, so good, say regulators, who noted that a whopping 17,000 players used the sites in the first few days of operation.
Before the full scale launch this past Tuesday, the six online betting sites to make history in the Garden State operated in a soft launch – or test – mode for five days, from November 21 through Monday, November 26.
Regulators are reporting that the test was deemed a success, this according to CDC Gaming Reports, reprinting from the Associated Press.
With elevated attention, smooth launch was paramount
A triumphant launch of real money online gambling in New Jersey was crucial to both state regulators as well as the state’s long-suffering land-based casino industry, especially due to the fact that, as the largest such regulated online gaming market to launch to date in the United States, New Jersey received a healthy heap of attention from the mainstream and gambling press alike.
New Jersey iGaming law dictates that all online betting operations be tied to one of the twelve brick and mortar casinos in the state’s seaside gambling getaway, Atlantic City.
When New Jersey’s newly re-elected governor, Republican Chris Christie, signed the state’s Internet betting law last February – making New Jersey the third state in the country to enact some form of online gambling legislation – he was motivated to help the state’s gambling economy, which has faltered in the last decade or so as competition for gamblers has increased mightily among states all over the nation.
Particularly damaging to Atlantic City has been the proliferation of land-based casino gambling in nearby Pennsylvania, where newer casino properties, such as Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino, have proven to be a successful lure for customers. In 2012, Pennsylvania managed to usurp Atlantic City, snatching away the title of second-largest gambling market in the United States.
The advent of real money online betting there has for months been trumpeted as a cure-all for the city’s financial woes, and while it is still extremely early on, some in New Jersey are already feeling triumphant.
“It looks like people are keen to play. I think the launch of I-gaming in New jersey has been a huge success,” CEO of geolocation company GeoComply Anna Sainsbury was quoted as saying.
A few hiccups reported
The advent of online gambling in New Jersey wasn’t without a few hiccups, however. Geolocation was one of the headaches, and payment processing was another. Similar niggles occurred when Nevada launched its real money online poker market back in April.
In New Jersey, some players reported being denied access to rooms because geolocation services were erroneously tagging them as being in other states. Other issues arose from payment processing, with the CEO of 888 urging players who were experiencing difficulty using bank credit cards to instead use a direct bank transfer to get funds onto the sites.
