Online gambling officially legal in New Jersey

Today, November 26, 2013, the State of New Jersey has ended its soft launch and is officially offering online gaming to its residents.

A total of 6 casinos with 13 online operations have successfully passed the evaluation period that began five days ago. The casinos include The Borgata, Bally’s, Caesars, The Tropicana, Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal, with The Golden Nugget casino still in its trial period. The Golden Nugget was the last to join the online offering, and has experienced some technical difficulties during the soft launch. New Jersey Division of Gambling Enforcement mentioned that The Golden Nugget should be fully operational by next week.

The bill to legalize gaming in the Garden State was passed in 2011, and has met with a few obstacles up until the launch. New Jersey's State Senator, Raymond Lesniak originally proposed the bill, and has recently proposed a new bill to offer international gaming from within the state. New Jersey has also shown great support for legalized and regulated online gambling in the US, and has even proposed a bill to allow interstate gambling.

Over 10,000 New Jersey residents have joined the online casinos in the past 5 days, a very high number in comparison to Nevada’s 500 registered users since April 2013. The amount of options, paired with all forms of casino, play in comparison to Nevada’s 2 poker-only operators and help explain the large gap in numbers.

From the numbers and responses, it would seem like New Jersey is off to a great start. If the success continues, more states could use New Jersey’s model to offer online gaming to their residents.

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