New Jersey egaming market goes live today
State's Division of Gaming Enforcement gives the green light to six operators to launch today
New Jersey residents will be able to legally gamble online for the first time today after the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement gave six operators the green light to launch.
Following a five-day test period, sites launched under the licences of The Borgata, Tropicana, Trump Plaza, Trump Taj Mahal, Caesars Atlantic City, and Bally Park Place can now go live.
888 has launched three sites – 888.com, 888casino.com, 888poker.com – while bwin.party has launched its own partypoker.com site and is powering Boyd Gaming’s borgatacasino.com and borgatapoker.com brands.
Meanwhile Caesars Interactive has launched separate casino and poker sites, while Ultimate Gaming and Betfair have launched one site each offering products across both verticals.
Gamesys, which entered into a partnership with Atlantic City casino Tropicana, has launched its first Virgin-branded site since acquiring Virgin Games in January, and it is also supplying the gaming platform and content for tropicanacasino.com.
Golden Nugget is the only DGE-approved operator not to launch its casino or poker platform, saying it needs more time to develop its platform before entering the market.
“We determined that it was important to improve the customer experience,” said Thomas Winter, vice-president of gaming at Landry’s, which operates the Golden Nugget.
“There is nothing more important to the Golden Nugget than our player satisfaction. Being among the first to launch our online gaming site is not what is important to us. It is more important to be among the best,” he added.
The trial period has been deemed a success by the regulator despite encountering a few hurdles along the way, including players on the New Jersey border being locked out by geolocation software.
New Jersey is the third state to launch regulated online gambling, behind Nevada and Delaware.