New Jersey Legalizes Online Gaming

New Jersey became the third state in the country to legalize online gambling on Tuesday. The state Senate and Assembly passed an online gaming bill before hearing Governor Chris Christie’s budget address.

The bill included several recommendations Christie made to lawmakers. Christie asked the state Congress to increase taxes on online gaming services and impose a ten year trial period to gauge the impact of online gaming on the state. The Senate and Assembly agreed with his recommendations and included them in a revised version of the bill. Christie was content with the new version of the bill and signed it the same day.

The new bill allows New Jersey casinos to offer online gaming versions of their games within the state borders. The bill could be later amended to allow for interstate gambling as well.

Members of the gambling community are ecstatic that New Jersey has finally legalized online gambling. Senator Raymond Lesniak, the primary sponsor of the bill, said New Jersey made the right move by legalizing online gaming. Lesniak said that online gambling will be extremely beneficial to the state and a “huge lifeline” for Atlantic City’s nearly bankrupt casino industry.

However, New Jersey citizens realize that they may have to wait a long time before they can actually gamble over the Internet. Nevada passed a bill to legalize online poker eight months ago and has issued a number of online gaming licenses within that time. However, none of the providers in the Silver State have launched officially an online gaming site. Experts caution that it may be another year before New Jersey actually offers online gaming.

 

This blog entry was posted on Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Casino News.