After a year which saw the industry break records for revenues, the New Jersey online casino scene could be getting a couple of new players in 2018.
On Monday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement announced that the two new casinos that will join the Atlantic City skyline – Ocean Resort and the Hard Rock AC – have applied for internet gaming licenses. The statement from the DGE doesn’t go much deeper than that, but the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Kenneth Hilario reports that the ownership group behind Ocean Resort, AC Ocean Walk, has already signed an agreement with the British gaming company GAN to be the software provider for any online gaming outlet they would have. At this time, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino hasn’t announced whether they have gone forward with a software provider.
The addition of the two new gaming outlets – both live and online – certainly can only help the New Jersey gaming industry. Ocean Resort, which used to be Revel Casino Resort, and the Hard Rock AC, which used to be the Taj Mahal, would bring the total number of casinos in Atlantic City back up to nine from its current seven (five of which offer online casino gaming and poker). That still is a far cry from the number of casinos that Atlantic City held in its heyday of 12.
What also isn’t stated is whether either of these new outlets will go the full route of offering an online casino and poker, offer just an online casino or just offer online poker. This is critical because there has been a great deal of action in the online casino realm, but online poker in New Jersey has struggled to find a foothold. A quick look at the numbers from 2017 prove that, while the online casinos are highly popular, the same cannot be said for online poker in the Garden State.
In 2017, the New Jersey online gaming industry pulled in a “win” (the gross amount gambled) of $245.6 million, a 24.9% increase in a year-to-year comparison with their 2016 results. Of that record-setting number, $221.35 million of the total was generated by the online casinos offered by all five of the current operators in the industry – the Borgata, Caesars, the Golden Nugget, Resorts AC and the Tropicana. That was a 30.1% increase over 2016.
The news for online poker on the Boardwalk isn’t quite as rosy. For the year, online poker in the state brought in $24.25 million, an 8.5% decline when compared to 2016. It is also critical to note that, of the five online gaming operations in the state, only three – the Borgata (and their software provider, partypoker), Resorts AC (PokerStars) and Caesars with Bally’s and Harrah’s (888Poker) – offer online poker to New Jerseyites.
There is another huge player that could come to the game and it would definitely interest all the casinos in New Jersey. In December, the U. S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Christie vs. NCAA, et. al., a seminal case that could change gambling in the States of America significantly. The lawsuit challenges the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which outlawed sports betting in all states that didn’t currently offer it (Oregon, Delaware and Montana were exempted due to operation of sports “lotteries,” while Nevada was exempted for its full sports betting operations).
New Jersey attempted back in 1992 to pass a law to allow Atlantic City to operate sports betting and be grandfathered in with the other states, but Jersey citizens voted it down in a referendum. That held firm until 2009, when New Jersey filed a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of PAPSA and passed regulations allowing for sports betting in 2014. Unfortunately, New Jersey hasn’t found much support in the courts to this point.
In the District Court of New Jersey, the judge found for the NCAA, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball that PAPSA would stand. The next appeal was to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in August 2016. That court sided with the District Court’s decision, leading New Jersey to appeal the case to the SCOTUS.
A hearing in December by the nine Justices that make up the Supreme Court has left many feeling as if PAPSA will be overturned. Much of the questioning from the Justices focused on why the federal government was stepping into what has traditionally been a state’s domain – gambling – and were the individual states being hurt by the inability to pursue sports betting. If PAPSA is overturned, it would allow every state in the U. S. the right to have sports betting and, it is natural to assume, offer it online.
The two new casinos won’t be opening their doors very soon, so they won’t be able to get into the online game just yet. Ocean Resort is looking to open its doors in the first half of 2018 and Hard Rock AC has targeted Memorial Day for an opening. When they come online after making their debut on the Boardwalk is not currently known.
