Land gambling veteran has partnered with 888’s All American Poker Network & Caesars Interactive and applied for online licence in New Jersey. 

While Wynn Resorts was waiting and observing the situation when online gambling regulation was being implemented in New Jersey, it appears the company is now planning to enter the market in partnership with 888’s All American Poker Network & Caesars Interactive Entertainment. 

Wynn and All American Poker Network have partnered back in September last year with plans to start online operations in Nevada and New Jersey. Under the agreement, the partners planned to use Caesars Entertainment land presence in Atlantic City as the place to locate its servers. 

The competition on the New Jersey online gambling market is becoming fiercer by the day, with the Virgin-Gamesys-Tropicana Atlantic City alliance to launch this Friday and Wynn joining in the near future.

New Jersey Senate Panel has approved a bill that will allow foreign online gambling operators to base their operations in the state.

After receiving a license and partnering with an existing Atlantic City casino, operators could offer gambling, including online poker, in jurisdiction where it’s legal. 

“This could help make New Jersey the leader in online gaming, across the country and around the world. We could be the Silicon Valley for high-tech gaming,” said Senator Ray Lesniak who introduced the measure. 

Offered products would be subject to a 15% tax rate, minus any taxes given to other countries for their resident’s play.

KGM Gaming and Spin Games have entered into a deal with Caesars Entertainment and can now offer their games on caesarscasino.com in New Jersey.

The agreement will see the ROC™ HTML5, remote gaming server technology utilized with a range of games developed on the platform. 

“Thanks to our team’s ability to stay nimble and react quickly and aggressively to the challenges that arose through this process, we are thrilled to be up and running, providing players with the most diverse content and highest quality entertainment value online today. Our companies have invested in each other, and have a vested interest in seeing each other succeed,” said Jason Peters, KGM Gaming.

“This is a landmark moment for Spin Games, as it is our first go live in the interactive space. We appreciate the efforts of our internal team and that of our partners KGM gaming in making this happen,” commented Kent Young, Spin Games President.

Online gambling has not proved to be as beneficial as hoped. It failed to generate most of the tax revenue anticipated for this year.

It is expected that New Jersey will end the fiscal year in June with less revenue than expected. It will be the third straight year that Christie’s administration overestimated when preparing the state budget. 

State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said that the forecast for the Casino Revenue Fund, which collects taxes from online gambling and Atlantic City’s brick-and-mortar casinos, has been cut by $126 million, which accounts for around half of the state’s revised budged projection. He stated that he believes taxes from Atlantic City will rise over the mid- and long-term, while also acknowledging that online gambling revenue is not even close to the projections. “Clearly, the results so far have not met our expectations,” he said. 

At first, the administration projected $180 million in web gambling taxes. This number was then lowered to $160 million. Looking at the current trends, it is expected that the state will generate $12 million this year, and $48 million next year.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation and International Game Technology (IGT) will be launching the first multistate progressive jackpot network in the US.

IGT has developed the multistate wide area progressive jackpot network Powerbucks which will be launched by Caesars in approved jurisdictions, beginning with New Jersey and Nevada, allowing players from the two states to play for a combined jackpot prize. 

Melissa Price, Caesars Entertainment’s senior vice-president of gaming said: “Together, IGT and Caesars Entertainment own the legacy of creating the most millionaires in the industry; now with Powerbucks, we're creating a whole new level of excitement around winning.”

“We're excited to transform the jackpot experience in partnership with Caesars Entertainment. With Powerbucks, IGT re-imagines casino gaming thrills by creating more winners, more often, across multiple states. We all win when players engage more, and Powerbucks enables our customers to attract more players to casinos with the promise of more jackpots,” commented Eric Tom, senior vice-president of global sales at IGT. 

Politicians from New Jersey say that that online gambling legalization is a state right. 

New Jersey state politicians have travelled to Washington as part of the annual Chamber of Commerce visit to the Capitol and have reinforced their opposition to federal attempts to ban online gambling. 

New Jersey Senator Ray Lesniak, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, Senate Majority Leader Lou Greenwald & Senate President Steve Sweeney say that legalization is a state right. 

“New Jersey policymakers took the initiative to modernize our gaming industry through online gaming. Yet Congressional action threatens to destroy this innovative & fledgling effort before it has a chance to succeed on its own merits. This issue should be left to the states, who are the best positioned to decide if & how online gaming should work in their communities... not by Washington,” said Senator Greenwald in a statement to federal politicians. 

According to Senator Lesniak, Graham-Chaffetz plan to reintroduce the 1961 Wire Act was an irresponsible attempt to reverse the status quo. He stated that the federal government has no right to force state that have already legalized online gambling to close a successful new business sector. 

The politicians also mentioned that banning online gambling would lead players to unlicensed sites.

“Instead of a dangerous, overseas black market, consumers in the State of New Jersey have a safe place to go; a program that not only includes essential consumer protections, but also generates thousands of dollars in [tax] revenues,” said Lesniak.

“It is disappointing that certain elements are working to dismantle New Jersey’s landmark internet gambling law. New Jersey’s law was created over many years, with a focus on safety & security. We have quickly become a national leader in the world of Internet gambling, & we simply cannot afford to have all our hard work & effort undone by the whims of a few [politicians] in Washington,” commented Senator Sweeney. 

"Much like gaming at [land] casinos throughout the country, this is clearly an issue best left for the states to decide & regulate. New Jersey’s program should be left to succeed on its own,” added Representative Prieto. 

Some offshore online gambling operators are luring players onto their sites without having a license from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. 

According to legislation in New Jersey, operators need to acquire an approval from the State Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) and must partner with a land-based casino in Atlantic City in order to legally offer online gambling in the state. However there are companies that are inviting players from New Jersey to play at their sites even though they do not have a license. 

"The division is aware of this issue and is taking steps to coordinate an appropriate response to this illegal activity,” said Kerry Langan, spokeswoman for DGE. 

Operators licensed in the state are also aware of the problem. Bwin.party has recently informed. its investors that offshore operators are running promotions to attract players from New Jersey.

April showed first monthly decline for online gambling in New Jersey. 

In April, online gambling brought $11.4 million, which falls a little short of March, which brought $11.9 million. According to figures from New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, average online take per day was $380,958 in April, compared to $383,173 in March. Before that, online gambling had shown monthly increases of 28% in January, 9% in February and 15% in March. 

Joe Lupo, senior vice president of the Borgata, commented that his casino has always believed that mobile devices would be key to Internet gambling revenue. He also said that the industry hopes for more widespread credit card and other electronic payments to fund Internet gambling accounts. 

“It simply takes time when launching a new business,” he commented.

Overall revenue, including online bets and those placed in person at brick-and-mortar casinos, increased by 3.2 percent in April to $235.9 million, compared with April 2013.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has published a revised set of guidelines for the licensing of online gaming affiliates. 

According to the updated guidelines, iGaming marketing companies must be licensed under one of two categories. ‘Vendor registration’ is aimed at affiliates that are paid a flat amount of money to direct traffic to a casino. Affiliates that have earnings tied to user gaming action or compensation should be registered as an ancillary casino service industry enterprise (CSIE). 

The vendor registration classification covers cost per click where an affiliate is paid a flat fee when a user clicks on a banner or link to its website, as well as cost per impression or cost per view where the flat fee is based on the number of people projected to view an advertisement. In addition, it also covers sponsorship deals where gaming platforms pay a flat fee to an entity to be their official partner, as well as cost per action flat rate deals that include sign up fees, deposit fees, download fees and betting fees.

The ancillary CSIE classification covers cost per action where affiliates are paid based on a defined user gaming action or compensation that is tied to a variable, such as the amount a payer deposits or bets. This also covers revenue share where the affiliate is paid a percentage of net gaming revenue of coded users, as well as a hybrid situation in which the affiliate earns both a cost per action and revenue share for a coded user.

The Division also requires online gaming permit holders and their platform providers to produce monthly reports for the Division’s service licensing bureau, Intake Unit, detailing monies or compensation paid to affiliates.

In addition, all compensation for New Jersey businesses must be based on the contract the affiliate submits to the Division for review.

Affiliates may not receive compensation for New Jersey business through customers or relationship outside of the state and any circumvention of this will result in a Division investigation and potential regulatory action.

New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has reported a second consecutive monthly decline in online poker revenue. 

The state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) that in May online poker brought $2.3 million in revenue, which is a decrease of about 12.3% from April’s revenue, which in comparison had a 19.3% month-on-month revenue drop to $2.6 million. Total internet gaming win for May was $10.5 million, down from $11.4 million in the previous month.

However, the DGE has also reported an 8.9% increase in total online gaming accounts in New Jersey, amounting to 351,136 live accounts.