NJ Online Poker Timeline: How It All Came Together
New Jersey’s online poker market is loaded with excellence, from the WSOP/888 through PokerStars and partypoker. Whether you’re looking for low-stakes cash games, free credits, or a seat in a WSOP bracelet event, there’s something for everyone. The best of the Garden State got you covered. We’ve broken down the most important events in the timeline of online poker in the life of New Jersey in order to figure out what caused positive and negative developments in this industry and find out how this flourishing market came to be. We are going to look into the factors that impacted the revenues of seven major casino operators and analyze the most important NJ Online Poker events between 2013 and 2017.
NJ online poker timeline: most important milestones
In the previous half-decade, New Jersey’s relationship with internet gaming has shifted dramatically. To determine the industry’s exact trajectory, researchers must examine all key events that occurred since the state’s online casinos and poker rooms opened in 2013.
Online gambling was prohibited in New Jersey (as well as the rest of the United States) due to a number of laws:
The Federal Wire Act was passed on September 13, 1961.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law on October 13th, 2006. (UIGEA).
Businesses could not receive money in conjunction with internet betting under these restrictions. The UIGEA notably excludes fantasy sports and skill games, and it makes no mention of lotteries.
2013 – NJ Governor Chris Christie signs bill A2578/S1565 authorizing licenses for online gaming sites partnered with existing land-based Atlantic City casinos.
In a few months, twelve casinos applied for the license, such as Borgata, 888, Caesars, Harrash, and Tropicana. After that there was the official launch of many casinos all over Atlantic City. There were lots of technical issues, software stability issues, but the playerbase was rapidly growing.
2014 – New casinos apply for the license. The first jackpot is reported in the Borgata Casino, 50 thousand new accounts were registered since November 2013. Trump Plaza shuts down, and numerous casinos go down with it.
By the end of the year, the number of online poker accounts was estimated to be around 500,000. The number of online poker sites goes down, and by December, there are only four of them. The main issues were of technical nature, but, by the end of the year, most of them were resolved.
2015 – This is the year when online banking starts playing a huge role in online poker, with Neteller acquiring Skrill, and PayPal becoming available for most NJ sites. New sites, such as Resorts Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino are launched. Golden Nuggets begins a huge campaign of software updates thanks to NYX.
This year brought a lot of growth to the NJ online poker industry, which made a very positive effect on the future revenue growth.
2016 – The big fish by the name Poker Stars NJ opens its doors in March, it quickly grows to be the biggest and most dominant NJ poker network. Pala creates its own NJ site which is solely dedicated to online bingo. Two sites, PP and 888, launch the first lottery SNG formats. GoldenNugget adds the ability to play with a live dealer, and the format proves to be very popular right away. In November, the US held a political election. There is a public referendum in NJ, the proposal to build two casinos is shut down.
This year didn’t bring that much progress in terms of revenue, which was quite fruitful for innovations such as SNG and Live Dealer tables.
2017 – Betfair opens its own live dealer games. PalaPoker and Scores Casino open its doors. Bet MGM is on, it offers poker to its users. Governors of NJ, Delaware and Nevada agree to share liquidity of poker. Pennsylvania makes a legislation which finally allows its citizens to enjoy online gambling. NJ breaks the yearly record in terms of revenue.