The New Jersey intrastate online casino created in a joint venture between the Pala Interactive and Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has begun beta testing making it the first tribal internet casino to go live in the Garden State.
The partnership between Pala Interactive and the Borgata was given the thumbs-up by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) early this month; PalaCasino.com was granted a transactional waiver last week. Now the site is in soft launch mode, meaning it is technically live, but will not be doing much of any marketing yet while it is still seeing how well everything works and how well the site is received. Pala Interactive was created last summer by California’s Pala Band of Mission Indians, but since California has yet to legalize and regulate online gambling, the company reached out to the Borgata to get something going on the opposite coast.
The beta testing started Monday, but it is still running through Wednesday, so there is still time to get in on it, provided those who attempt to signup are amongst the first 500 players to volunteer. It is a pretty nice deal, too. Those who are accepted as beta testers will receive $25 per day and will be reimbursed up to $50 on their deposits. And since this is a real casino, beta testers still get to keep any winnings and can cash them out after the soft launch is over. Thus, beta testers are can completely freeroll for a couple more days, provided they don’t deposit more than $75. More than that, and the excess is at risk.
On top of that, beta testers will receive PalaCasino’s standard welcome package of $10 free, a 100 percent deposit bonus up to $100, and a free million dollar spin.
There are a few very basic requirements for the beta testing. Beta testers must be located in New Jersey and, as mentioned, must be amongst the first 500 to sign-up on the beta testing site. Players are to keep their bets to $5 or under and must make at least 25 bets spread across five different games. When the testing period is complete, testers must fill out a survey to receive their $25 per diem.
Beta testing is still going on tonight until 11:59pm and all day Thursday and Friday.
The Pala / Borgata venture also has plans to launch an online poker site called, naturally, PalaPoker.com, but that has yet to go live. The site is up, but has a big “COMING SOON” splashed across it. Casino is one thing, as you don’t need a gigantic player base to keep a site going, but it should be interesting to see if New Jersey can support another poker site. Ultimate Poker already went under, leaving just the Party Borgata Network (no word on if Pala will join the network), WSOP.com, and the All American Poker Network fighting over what looks like a smaller than expected market.