The situation in the US online gambling market has been quite chaotic and unclear over the last few years, but at last signs of a second coming for US online gambling are surfacing.
New Jersey has become the first US state to fully legalize online gambling…
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie validated the bill at the end of 2013 and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have already joined forces with online game provider Gamesys to provide New Jersey residents with online Poker, slots and Blackjack.
A few other states such as Delaware and Nevada are also allowing some forms of online gambling, but New Jersey is the first to have fully legalized all aspects of cybergambling.
Pros and cons
There are, however, some stark shortcomings when it comes to legalizing gambling in just certain states, instead of the whole country.
For example, strictly only residents of New Jersey are permitted to play in the online Poker rooms and casinos licensed in the state.
And to verify whether or not the player is actually physically within the state limits, casinos plan to periodically locate the player’s cell phone (mobile) and if it is found to be outside the state borders (New Jersey is relatively small, and adjacent to the vast population centers of New York, Philadelphia and others) or even simply turned off, the player will be denied access.
These kind of rules are extremely short-sighted and difficult to enforce in our view, as they not only force the customer into owning a cell phone (where is it written that people absolutely have to own a phone, even if in practice the bulk of us do) they also violate a customer’s privacy and, if a player wants, there’s nothing to prevent them simply registering a cellphone in New Jersey and leaving it turned on in a safe place within the state boundary (perhaps with friends or relatives keeping the phone fully charged in the case of long term stays outside the state).
Why is New Jersey legalizing gambling?
It has to be said that this seeming outburst of leniency and support towards the online gambling business in the US is driven by cold hard cash, though this is not without benefits…
…It is estimated that New Jersey will reap up to $100-170m by this repeal of anti-online gambling laws, and if gambling were to be legalized throughout the US (unlikely to happen any time soon) an estimated 22,000 new jobs might also be created in the process.