New Jersey iGaming Moving Forward Sans Several Casinos
Caesars, the Borgata, and several other casinos are firing on all cylinders in the New Jersey Internet gambling market, but several other potential online gambling providers have fallen by the wayside.
In this column I’ll take a look at the casinos that have been left behind in New Jersey’s burgeoning online poker market.
Who is missing?
Resorts Casino and PokerStars may be the most high-profile partnership that has failed to get off the ground in New Jersey, but they are by no means the only one.
The Atlantic Club and the Revel Casino are too busy dealing with their own financial issues to even show an interest in online gambling at this point, while the partnership of the Golden Nugget and Bally Technologies has run into compliance issues, unable to meet the requirements demanded by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Resorts Casino and PokerStars
The partnership between Resorts and PokerStars showed a lot of early promise, and regulators in New Jersey seemed fairly optimistic that Resorts and PokerStars would gain approval, but this was not the case; at least not yet.
Since learning that Resorts Casino and PokerStars would not be among the sites eligible to participate in New Jersey’s soft-launch, which began on November 21st, and would therefore not be part of the official launch just five days later, the poker world has focused most of its attention on the sites that have launched, with little attention being paid to PokerStars potential return to the US.
Unfortunately, there has been very little public progress regarding PokerStars suitability concerns, and at this time we have no more information than we had a month ago as to whether or not PokerStars will be approved for a New Jersey iGaming license.
The Golden Nugget and Bally Technologies
Unlike PokerStars and Resorts Casino, the partnership of the Golden Nugget and Bally Technologies has received approval from the NJ DGE (at first they did make the cut, then they didn’t and then they did, and then their sites were taken offline, and then put back online!); they just haven’t been able to prove that their software is ready for prime time. Because of their soft-launch testing issues, the online gambling sites associated with the Golden Nugget are still operating on a limited basis.
It’s unclear what the holdup is with the Golden Nugget, but considering they have had over three weeks to iron things out, the problem(s) may be fairly significant.
The Revel Casino
The Revel Casino has been an unmitigated disaster ever since the ambitious project was announced back in 2008. Problems have hovered over the property’s head like storm clouds during construction and after it opened.
The Revel filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection just months after opening its doors, and although it applied for an iGaming license in New Jersey, it was later revealed that Revel had no plans to move forward with online gambling at this time.
The Atlantic Club Casino
The Atlantic Club Casino is pretty much in the same boat as the Revel Casino financially. Earlier in 2013 the Atlantic Club officially filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection after failing to close a very public and very contentious sale to PokerStars that ended about as ugly as ugly can be.
The Atlantic Club is likely on the shopping block, and has been tied to everyone from the aforementioned PokerStars to the enigmatic 2UP Gaming, and just about any potential suitor in between.
Like Revel, the Atlantic Club has told New Jersey regulators that they will not be pursuing online gambling at this time.
What about Caesars Entertainment’s other properties?
There is also the curious case of the Caesars Entertainment property The Showboat Casino.
Caesars has four Atlantic City properties, and three of those properties have some role in the online gambling market, Caesars Atlantic City, Harrahs Atlantic City, and Bally’s Atlantic City.
On the other hand, Showboat has yet to make any headway into the online gambling market, and rumors abound about the casino’s future. The Rumors regarding the Showboat range from the casino being up for sale, to Caesars using the Showboat to house other company’s servers.
