As Global Gaming Business has recently reported, the state of New Jersey has reached an initial agreement with the United Kingdom to share respective online poker player pools.
The UK is one of the oldest online gambling regulated markets in the world. New Jersey on the other hand is the biggest online gambling market in the USA, with more than 90 percent of the regulated market in America. The cooperation would expand the market and increase annual revenue for both jurisdictions.
However, there are several issues that might be problematic for the deal to be sealed any time soon. As the Director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, David Rebuck said: “We’d still have to figure out lots of issues: specific regulations, how the tax rate from each jurisdiction would be applied, player ID and geolocation issues, and other things we probably haven’t even considered yet. But you have to start somewhere”.
The problem is in the New Jersey law legalizing online gambling passed in 2013. Under the state’s law, only those operators or companies that are physically located within the state, can have access to state-approved gambling sites. However, there is a way to pass the regulation, as the law also allows New Jersey to enter liquidity sharing deal with other jurisdictions.
As no decisions were made, it is uncertain whether New Jersey residents will gain access to online platforms licensed by the UK Gaming Commission but not licensed in New Jersey. There are a couple of differences in regulations that could be problematic in allowing that. One example is sports betting, which is allowed in the UK but not in New Jersey. Yet, because there is a number of platforms operating in both jurisdictions, there is a great possibility of players from the UK jurisdiction playing peer-to-peer with New Jersey Players.
Both Net Jersey and the UK are working on the solution. As the report has it, gaming regulators sent letters to companies operating on both markets with a request to prupose a system that would fit the requirements.
