When it passed online poker and casino gaming regulations in 2013, the New Jersey legislature made sure that it was looking out for its major industry – casino gaming in Atlantic City – and its citizens. After four years, however, the New Jersey legislature is now looking at expanding its market and allowing international players.
Recently in the New Jersey Senate, Senator Ray Lesniak (a longtime advocate for online gaming and poker in the state) introduced new legislation that would alter a key segment of the regulations from the New Jersey law. The bill’s nomenclature is S3536 and, if passed, it would allow for other servers that are outside of Atlantic City to process betting and gaming action. This would be a monumental change for the New Jersey industry on several fronts.
First, the reasoning behind such a change to the legislation. The way the regulations are currently written, the processing of the games and the acceptance of wagers can only be conducted from servers that are in Atlantic City. This makes it difficult for the state to enter into any agreements with other states for shared players pools. Furthermore, it is impossible with the way the regulations are currently written to join with or accept any action that would be from outside the States of America.
S3536 would change that. The bill states that “In the coming years, the global online gambling market is expected to grow… Europe (will have) online gambling revenues totaling nearly $15 billion a year and (grow) at a faster rate than the rest of the world.” Pointing out that the current regulations have seen an industry that has generated almost a billion dollars “would increase the economic benefit(s) of Internet gaming to Atlantic City and to this State.”
Two organizations in the New Jersey government, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and the Department of Law and Public Safety, already have the power to modify the regulations if they deem it necessary. The bill states that those two bodies can “allow the acceptance of wagers from persons outside of this State if the division determines that such wagering is not inconsistent” with standing law. The bill would further allow for those organizations to “permit Internet gaming equipment to be located outside of Atlantic City if the division deems it necessary to facilitate the conduct of international Internet wagering.”
While these changes may seem much ado about nothing, it is critical if the Garden State wanted to allow for players from outside of the States of America and REALLY expand their player pool. At this time, the compact that New Jersey shares with Nevada and Delaware only adds about three million people (combined populations of Nevada and Delaware) to the 8.9 million Jerseyites that are citizens allowed to play on their sites. By allowing for international players to take part in their offerings, it is conceivable that conservatively ten times the citizenry of both Nevada and Delaware would be eligible to play on New Jersey’s gaming sites.
There are other reasons plainly evident for the change. Besides being able to bring in more customers, S3536 would bring in more revenues for the state. Revenues of the New Jersey online gaming industry have already set records and could break $200 million by the end of 2017, but those revenues would skyrocket were international players able to get on the New Jersey action.
If there is one downside to the bill, it is that there isn’t much time to enact the legislation. Lesniak is set to retire at the end of his term in January 2018, so S3536 would have to get through the full New Jersey legislature within the next month AND be signed by Governor Chris Christie before he departs Trenton. Such quick action isn’t unheard of in the state but, with the highly unpopular Christie hamstrung on putting through new legislation ahead of Governor-elect Phil Murphy taking the office, it is highly unlikely that it will happen.
It wouldn’t be a great leap forward as far as the ability of U. S. citizens to play online poker, but Lesniak’s S3536 would be a financial windfall for the state of New Jersey if it were to pass. The bill bears watching in the New Jersey legislature as elected officials determine just how far they want to take New Jersey’s online gaming system.
