New Jersey i-gaming goes live today

The state will take 15 per cent in tax from each online bet, near double the rate levied on bricks and mortar casinos, while the land-based venues will also see a cut of the online income. Following the launches in Nevada and Delaware, New Jersey becomes the most populous state yet to offer its residents online gambling.

David Rebuck, the director of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, has pledged that new standards in monitoring online gambling will be set. According to ABC News, invited players in the state will test the real-money online gambling systems of New Jersey casinos.

The test period will allow regulators to monitor technology that has been designed to establish if all gamblers are within the state’s borders and aged 21 or over. Players will also test out electronic payment technology as well as the games themselves. “Testing has been going on for months,” Rebuck said. “I don't' think there is any online gaming anywhere in the world that is going to be monitored as closely and protect the integrity of the games and players' money as well these will.”

The state is scheduled to release a list of gambling websites that have passed rigorous testing and will be permitted to go live for the test later today. If the test period goes well, the state will then launch a full online gambling service on November 26.

Casino gambling has been legal in the state since 1978, but the launch of an online gambling service will place the state in an exclusive market alongside Nevada and Delaware, the two other US states that currently offer real-money online gambling.

“With the dawn of internet gaming, we are on the cusp of perhaps the biggest change, and challenge, since the first casino opened here,” New Jersey Casino Control Commission’s commissioner, Alisa Cooper, said.

New Jersey awards Caesars, Bally AC online licenses

New Jersey awarded two additional casinos licenses to conduct Internet gambling ahead of the launch this week, bringing the state's total to seven. Caesars Interactive, a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment, and  Bally's Atlantic City were both granted Internet gambling permits by the state gambling enforcement division David Rebuck,  welcomed the additions, but said last-minute testing was to continue which might knock some out of the running for Thursday night's launch of a five-day test period. 

"All the companies who meet our testing standards at the end of tonight that we feel comfortable with for 'soft play' will get an order to commence soft play," Rebuck said.

He added that he is optimistic the casinos are ready for a successful online gambling launch. In addition to Caesars and Bally's, the state has issued Internet gambling permits to the two Trump casinos, the Tropicana Casino and Resort; the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, and the Golden Nugget Atlantic City. New Jersey will become the third state in the nation to offer Internet gambling, after Nevada and Delaware.