New Jersey Online Gambling Brief January 2, 2014
As we ring in the New Year and get over the holiday doldrums it appears the New Jersey online gambling market will continue to grow even bigger and better in 2014, considering that even during the “slow” period of late December the market continued to grow.
In this week’s installment of the New Jersey Online Gambling Brief we’ll take a look at several important stories that occurred during the holidays, beginning with PokerStars first public statements regarding its failed attempt to purchase the Atlantic Club Casino. We’ll also cover the newly launched mobile app for Party Poker in New Jersey; take a look at the latest account figures coming out of the Garden State; and explain why 2014 is a very important year for Atlantic City brick & mortar casinos.
PokerStars reacts to Atlantic Club closure
With the Atlantic Club Casino set to close its doors in a couple of weeks the casino’s one-time suitor, PokerStars, has decided to break its silence regarding their attempted buyout of the struggling casino which began almost a year ago.
Eric Hollreiser, the Head or Corporate Communications for PokerStars wrote a blog post where he called the closure of the Atlantic Club, “sad” and “avoidable.”
“It’s always sad when hard-working people lose their jobs, especially during the holiday season. This is particularly sad, though, because it simply didn’t have to happen.
“At this time last year, PokerStars reached an agreement that would secure a new future for the casino, save the jobs of 1,800 employees and inject new blood, new technology and new finances into the Atlantic City casino economy.”
Hollreiser went on to detail the early agreement they struck with the Atlantic Club:
“It was a leap of faith and commitment of significant investment for PokerStars to do this considering there was not yet an online bill in New Jersey and we faced a challenging regulatory approval process. Nevertheless, in good faith we immediately began funding the Atlantic Club operations, which provided the current owners with a lifeline and secured jobs in the dark days following Hurricane Sandy and the seasonally slow winter months.”
Hollreiser ends his thoughts on PokerStars’ Atlantic Club saga by saying that the owners at the time were willing to gamble with their employees’ futures by banking on peak summer business and the new iGaming legislation to pump money into the struggling casino’s coffers—which obviously didn’t come to fruition.
Party Poker launches iOS app in New Jersey
Party Poker unveiled the first version of their mobile gaming platform in New Jersey during the holidays, and while offering a mobile app is a big step forward, let’s just say that not everyone was completely enthused with the first generation app.
As Kevin Brkal wrote at OnlinePokerReport.com, “When players attempt to play on the play money tables they are hit with a message that states ‘Coming Soon – Play money games are currently unavailable and will be added soon.'”
You might be thinking that “real” poker players could care less about play money games, but a lot of players like to test a product out by participating in the play money tables before committing real money. And the lack of play money games also demonstrates a rush to get the product released.
The lack of play-money games aside, other complaints include a lack of tournaments and poor graphics (which is said about every online poker site or mobile app that has ever existed), but overall the app has met with a mixture of positive and negative responses from the poker community.
Atlantic City’s New Jersey monopoly could come to an end
A very intriguing article written by Wayne Parry appeared in the Las Vegas Sun this past week explaining how 2014 will be a very important year for Atlantic City casinos.
Parry details how AC properties are entering into the fourth year of a five year “grace period” issued by Governor Chris Christie. Essentially, if AC casinos can’t turn it around after five years New Jersey is likely to open up brick & mortar gaming statewide, ending a near 40-year monopoly by the city of Atlantic City.
The recent contraction from the loss of the Atlantic Club will likely help the other 11 properties’ bottom-lines, as will the expansion into iGaming, but it will be interesting to see if this, plus a slowly recovering economy will be enough to keep New Jersey gambling localized to Atlantic City, or if other areas of the state will have the chance to open their own casinos when 2016 rolls around.
As Parry notes in his article (a very good read that is well worth your time) even with the loss of the Atlantic Club, the AC market is still considered too bloated, and more closures could be coming down the pipeline. But these closures come with a high price to the community as thousands of jobs would be lost—the closing of the Atlantic Club will see 1,600 people adding their names to the unemployment rolls.
We thought you should know…
- In the same blog post mentioned above, PokerStars also made it clear that the company was not abandoning its hopes of being part of the US market, as Eric Hollreisser stated that PokerStars is “confident that [it] will have a strong presence and positive economic impact in the American market in 2014.”
- Online gaming accounts in New Jersey have now surpassed 125,000.
