When it comes to online poker legislation it usually turns out be a good news/bad news situation for the poker players themselves, and this is precisely what residents of New Jersey could be facing as soon as July.
Yesterday the New Jersey State Assembly passed the online gaming bill that was passed by the Senate back in November 2010, and the bill now has only one more hurdle to clear to become law; a signature by Governor Chris Christie. The Assembly passed the bill with an overwhelming majority of 63-11 –similar to the Senate’s 29-5 passage—and all signs at this point indicate it will be likely for Christie to sign the bill into law.
The good news is the bill would make it very easy for players to deposit and withdraw their funds from these licensed New Jersey operators which would attract many new, entertainment-seeking, type players. But there are a number of problems with the bill if you are a current online poker player.
First, the bill would effectively cut-off New Jersey from the rest of the world, which would cause the “legal” NJ sites to be poorly trafficked with a small player base to pull customers from –this could be made all the more problematic depending on how many online sites are allowed.
Secondly, these new laws would make it officially illegal for online poker operators outside of New Jersey to offer games to New Jersey residents. Therefore, we could see a similar scenario to Washington State play out, where current providers like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars would leave the market to comply with US laws –thus keeping their hopes alive of someday being licensed in the US.
So not only would the legal poker rooms be small entities, but the global network of online poker would lose yet another small player base, which seems to be the way things are turning at the moment –first Italy, then France, Washington State, and now New Jersey. As more and more of these locales get chipped off piece by piece we could eventually end up with an online market not dissimilar from the brick & mortar casino industry; where everything is based locally.
This could be devastating in the short-term for online poker –especially if more states follow New Jersey’s lead—with the only hope being that multiple states band together to create online poker networks of sorts, pooling their players much like the current online poker world.
Related Posts
- Online Poker Legislation Passes Committee Vote: What’s Next? - July 29, 2010
- Advocates Look to “Lame Duck” Session to Pass Online Poker Bill - August 10, 2010
- What to Expect if a USA Online Poker Bill Passes - August 3, 2010
Written by Bill Nye on January 11th, 2011