New Jersey online poker fans will be thrilled to hear that the state of New Jersey has released the first I-Poker OK to the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, making it the first casino to obtain state approval. The Borgata is the biggest casino in New Jersey and is owned by the Marina District Development. The Marina District Development which is a joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming.
The decision was made on the 9th of October and the state regulators issued a permit that will allow the Borgata Hotel Casino to provide online gambling towards the end of November.
Now that it has official confirmation, the Borgata Hotel Casino will start to offer real-money gambling, table games and slots from the 26th of November.
A representation from the Borgata said
It’s always nice to be first in the queue. Borgata and bwin.party are aggressively pursuing our objective of being among the first to launch online gaming in the state. We believe online gaming is an exciting growth opportunity for New Jersey’s gaming industry, one that will generate significant benefits for the state as New Jersey assumes a leadership role in this emerging form of gaming entertainment.
However, all this depends on the performance of the beta testing. If the testing period proves to be successful, then the Borgata Hotel Casino will launch on the 26th of November without any delay. There are also a number of other firms who could also join the Borgata on the opening day of games.
New Jersey has followed a similar procedure as Nevada, making it mandatory for poker players to be physically located in New Jersey to be able to play online poker. Now that Nevada and New Jersey have legalized online poker, the next step that online poker companies are looking at is organizing inter-state poker which will allow both Nevada and New Jersey poker players to compete against one another and increase the player pool.
PokerStars, the largest online gambling company in the world is collaborating with the Resorts Casino and should also be launching soon in New Jersey. Caesars, who are owners of the WSOP brand will also look to kick start operations in New Jersey as soon as possible as they have a partnership with the popular poker site 888 Holdings.
