New Jersey Online Gambling Brief: PokerStars, Credit Card Denial, Security
Between the Heartbleed bug and a more recently discovered exploit in Internet Explorer, online security has been a hot topic over the past couple weeks, and players are starting to ask questions regarding the security measures in place and the safety of their funds at online poker sites, where millions of dollars is stored.
In this week’s New Jersey Online Gambling Brief we’ll present you with some answers to those questions via security specialist Gus Fritschie who penned an article on the subject for PokerFuse.
Another hot topic is payment processing, so we’ll also take a look at the current situation with payment processing in the state and what improvements, if any, have been made.
Additionally, we’ll let you know how the Borgata’s NJCOP tournament series fared, whether PokerStars and Resorts are still exploring online poker in New Jersey, and a whole lot more.
Credit Card denials still a major hurdle
One of the biggest hurdles preventing the online gambling market in New Jersey from really taking off is the ongoing payment processing issues customers face, as several major banks are still unwilling to process online gambling transactions despite the industry being completely legal in the Garden State.
Success rates for credit cards have improved since the November launch, but when you consider they started out at a mere 10% even a drastic improvement isn’t solving the problem.
So how far have they come?
Speaking to the Associated Press, CAMS CEO Matthew Katz (CAMS handles the Borgata’s online payments) said New Jersey credit card deposits were running at about a 42%-46% success rate over the past few months, leading to Katz calling it,
“The single biggest thing that’s holding it back.”
MasterCard continues to have a solid acceptance, in the mid 70% range, but Visa’s acceptance rate is still running well below 50% – American Express doesn’t allow gambling transactions of any kind and is not an accepted payment option at any online site in New Jersey.
The inconsistency in acceptance has likely turned away many potential players who are simply unwilling to create a Skrill or Neteller account, or send an ACH eCheck simply to play online poker… All of which require some extra legwork on the part of the player which leads to the transactions taking a little bit longer to process.
NJ Online Poker security
While solutions to the payment processing dilemma are being worked out, the sites also underwent a security test of sorts, performed by information security specialist Gus Fritschie who posted the findings from his “security survey” on PokerFuse.com.
In his survey Gus Fritschie looked at each site’s standards for protecting player accounts, from minimum (and in one case maximum) password character length to the safeguards in place to protect from brute force attacks.
Overall the New Jersey online poker sites seem to be doing a good job, but as you’ll see in Fritschie’s findings, a couple sites would do well to tighten up their security game.
NJCOP: Success or failure
The World Poker Tour just wrapped up Season XII at the Borgata in Atlantic City, marking the first time the tour’s championship event was played outside of Las Vegas (having been held at the Bellagio during season I-XI) and at the same time the Borgata and their online gambling partner bwin.party hosted their first major online tournament series, the New Jersey Championships of Online Poker.
The NJCOP had its good and bad points, as 13 of the 15 tournaments reached their guarantees (most fairly easily) but at the same time it was the two largest tournaments that failed, including the $200k guaranteed Main Event, which saw partypoker and the Borgata fork over some $37,000 in overlays.
Another very strange occurrence happened in the $30k High-Roller event, which more than doubled its guarantee, with 149 entrants, but for whatever reason paid only two players.
You can read a full breakdown of the NJCOP and its effect on New Jersey online poker here: Recapping the NJCOP: New Jersey’s Most Successful Online Tournament Series to Date
New Jersey traffic numbers
Traffic at the New Jersey online poker rooms was static over the past week, with Borgata / Party and WSOP.com maintaining their average cash-game traffic of 170 and 120 players respectively according to www.pokerscout.com’s data.
The #3 and #4 online poker sites in the market, 888 Poker and Ultimate Poker dipped ever so slightly, with 888’s cash-game traffic dropping from 85 to 80 players and Ultimate Poker going from an average of 6 cash gamed players to 5.
While the drop off seems to have subsided I’m not sure how happy the sites will be considering the NJCOP brought added poker players into the state, and soon some of the sites’ regular grinders will likely be leaving for the WSOP in Las Vegas.
We thought you should know…
Resorts sees future with PokerStars
One of the forgotten stories in New Jersey online poker is PokerStars and their partnership with Resorts Casino.
Nary a whisper has been heard from either entity since the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement suspended PokerStars license application back in December, but with a recently finished $70 million renovation Resorts is back in the headlines and answering questions about their partner PokerStars.
Little was said of PokerStars current plight to get back in the good graces of the DGE, but Resorts did say they are sticking with PokerStars.
