Those who keep an eye on the gambling affairs in New Jersey know that the state had to deal with a lot of difficulties during the last couple of months and it seems like the local regulators have another problem to cope with.
The latest gambling issue concerns the online gambling and the problems it causes. The New Jersey’s authorities have taken the decision to check what is the attitude of the players in the Garden State towards the free access to online gambling platforms.
The Governor, Chris Christie, who, by the way, played a key role in the matters, concerning the sports betting legalization, has decided to conduct a survey and find out if the impact of the gambling activities is positive or negative. Christie will work in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services.
During the survey, the most complicated problems, caused by gambling addiction, will be pinpointed. The budget, set aside for the study, is equal to almost $1,3 million.
Although the market analysts predicted that the online gambling legalization will bring a huge revenue to the Garden State, these claims were not completely true. The income was several times smaller than the expected. PokerStars, one of the most popular online poker platforms round the globe, exit the New Jersey’s gambling market. However, the new owners have recently announced that they are about to reconsider making their services available again.
Those operators that have been awarded a license, failed to meet Governor’s expectations as far as the income is concerned.
The situation got worse when four prestigious casino venues, based in Atlantic City, filed for bankruptcy. The online gambling activities were supposed to keep the balance and bring approximately the same annual revenue like the closed casinos. Apparently, they failed to achieve this goal.
The research, that is going to be conducted, is said to be the first that can provide reliable and accurate information about the online gambling activities and their popularity and enable the regulators take adequate measures.
It will consists of two phases. The first one will serve as a guideline and the second one is supposed to indicate if there are any variances. The authorities of the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services will be in charge of leading the research to a successful outcome.
Dr. Lia Nower, who has a key role in the survey, commented that nobody would dare to disagree with the fact that the online gambling matters are important to the state but unfortunately figuring out the strong and the weak sides they have will take time as it is still an “unexplored” field.
In brief, approximately 3, 500 respondents will take part in the study. The interviews will be taken via phone and via the Internet. Once the results are processed, the authorities will be informed and according to the plan, the research will be repeated 18 months later. Then, the experts will create detailed reports, containing analyses of the behavior of the players.
