Home / Poker News January 2011 / What exactly does legal online poker mean in NJ?
What exactly does legal online poker mean in NJ?
Posted by: Randy Williams - Mon, 2011-01-24 06:44
Now that we all know that online poker
has nearly been legalized in New Jersey, it’s time to take a look at the impact the new legal state of affairs will have over online poker in the Garden State. It has pretty much been known from the beginning that state level legalization will have no positive effects on
online poker as we know it now. On the contrary in fact: the currently established online poker industry will be shut out from these markets completely by the new laws. Instead of allowing already established online poker operations to thrive, New Jersey’s newly regulated online gaming environment will aim to create a completely new industry from scratch, an industry which will only allow hand-picked New Jersey based brick and mortar casinos to run online gaming operations.
The New Jersey casinos, the aiding of which is the primary goal of the legal package, should start offering online tables for the public by the end of 2011 –at least that’s how Joe Brennan, president of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gambling Association sees the situation.
Apparently, the full legal framework for the regulation of online poker and gambling is not yet in place, but according to Brennan, all legal matters will probably be sorted out shortly. The current status of the bill is that it’s on Gov. Chris Christie’s desk. Where it will go from there is not yet known, and there are all sorts of speculations concerning the way Christie will handle the bill. The general consensus seems to be that being a staunch supporter of the State’s casino interests, the governor will sign the bill into law without problems or delays.
The fact that the bill passed by truly large margins in both the State Senate and Assembly will probably also weigh in heavily in the Governor’s decision. A veto from him would probably lead to a veto override by the legislature, thus only serving to delay the inevitable.
