Legal Online Gambling Era Comes to New Jersey

After first saying “No” again, it took Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey, only 19 days to finally sign a bill into a law putting an end to what seemed to be a never-ending story. The regulation becomes on the newest American gambling laws, and will make the Garden State the third US state to regulate and issue licenses for online gambling.

The Governor told American gambling news sources: “This was a critical decision, and one that I did not make lightly. But with the proper regulatory framework and safeguards that I insisted on including in the bill, I am confident that we are offering a responsible yet exciting option that will make Atlantic City more competitive while also bringing financial benefits to New Jersey as a whole.”

Similar to the current situation in Delaware, American online casino operators in New Jersey will soon be able to provide all the games found inside its land-based casinos to punters wishing to play on the Internet. The third state with some legalized online gambling is, naturally, Nevada, which further enriched its Internet gaming offerings with another law.

Industry experts predicted that the legislation will pass in New Jersey. When Chris Christie put his conditional veto on the bill the last time around, he asked for changes, which were pretty easy to make. His requests included a higher gross gaming revenue tax (15 percent instead of 10), more money to deal with problem gamblers, and a sunset period to last for 10 years.

First to predict Christie signing the legislation after all, was Senator Ray Lesniak, one of the bill’s most dedicated advocates. The bill went through the Assembly 68-5, and passed in the Senate 34-1. Chris Christie put his signature on it less than an hour later.

Poker Players Alliance’s executive director, John Pappas, had the following comments after the bill was made into a law: “New Jersey has gone “all in”. Residents now will have access to a safe and regulated online gaming market, and the state will have a new source for revenue and job creation – something the federal government has failed to do thus far.”