New Jersey Legalizes Online Gambling

New Jersey became the third state in the U.S. to legalize online gambling Tuesday, seeing a revised bill fly through votes in both houses of the legislature before being signed by Governor Chris Christie. While the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement technically has the power to decide whether or not poker will be one of the authorized games, there is no reason to assume it won’t be.

Assembly Bill A2578 and Senate Bill S1565 passed rather easily in their respective houses in December, but Governor Christie gave them a conditional veto when they reached his desk earlier this month. That was actually good news for poker fans, as it meant he was generally pleased by what he saw, but would not give it his official stamp of approval until certain changes were made.

Governor Christie wanted more money derived from online gambling to go towards problem gambling services, the online gaming revenue tax rate (imposed on the operators, not players) increased from 10 percent to 15 percent, state elected officials to be required to disclose “past and present representation of entities seeking or holding Internet gaming licensees,” and a trial period of 10 years for online gaming, after which it would be reviewed and either continued or cancelled.

None of the changes were seen as serious obstacles to the bill’s eventual passage, and they were not. Today, the General Assembly voted in favor of the amended bill 68-5-1 while the Senate was almost unanimous, voting 35-1 in favor. Without much delay, Governor Christie signed the bill, making “An Act Authorizing Internet Gaming at Atlantic City Casinos under Certain Circumstances” the law of the land.

Under the new law, all games currently offered in New Jersey casinos will be legal online, a contrast to Nevada’s law, which only allows for online poker. All players must be located within New Jersey borders, though they do not need to be actual residents of New Jersey.

Like Nevada, New Jersey’s law does allow for interstate compacts with other states in order to increase the player pools, something that would prove very beneficial to poker. Interstate compacts would benefit all states, although Nevada and Delaware, the only two other states with legalized online poker, would benefit more than New Jersey at this point. New Jersey is the 11th most populous state in the U.S., home to over 8.8 million people, according to 2012 estimates. Nevada and Delaware combined have just 3.7 million residents.

Of course, while poker players are understandably excited about the passage of the bill, it remains to be seen when any sites will actually get up and running. Over the next several weeks, we should expect the state to start reviewing operating license applications. According to the law, there will be a minimum of 90 days after the bill’s passage before games are offered, but no more than 180 days. That would make online gambling a reality in New Jersey no later than the end of August. There is still some uncertainty surrounding the timeframe, however, as experts in the industry are simply hopeful that sites will launch by the end of the year, with some estimates looking as far as 18-24 months out.

Regardless, this is an exciting day for the poker community, one that has been a long time coming in New Jersey.