New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has put his signature on a pro-online gambling bill that urges US President Donald Trump and the Congress not to implement a federal ban on this type of activity.
Internet gambling is only legal in three states – New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware. It can be said that out of all three, New Jersey’s iGaming market has been the most successful one. It was opened in 2013 and saw a particularly good year in 2016, when casinos offering online gambling options raked in $196.7 million, up 32% from a year earlier. The major increase was, among other things, attributed to PokerStars’ expansion into the market.
The bill that was first approved by the state Legislature and was later on signed by Gov. Christie argues that the introduction of a federal online gambling ban would have quite a lot of negative consequences for New Jersey’s casino industry. The legislative piece points out that the investments already put into implementing and regulating iGaming would be dismantled if this type of activity is prohibited at a federal level.
Jobs and economic opportunities already realized would be taken out and the potential for more jobs, including high-tech software ones, additional tax revenue, and new business ventures for Atlantic City’s casinos would be foreclosed, the bill further reads.
Many see online gambling as one of the main boosters of Atlantic City’s casino industry. The city saw five of its twelve casinos close doors within a two-and-a-half-year span. Formerly the only casino hub on the East Coast, New Jersey faced competition from neighboring states in the 2000s and found it difficult to cope with it at first, hence the continued revenue declines reported over the past decade.
Last year, Atlantic City posted its first full-year revenue increase for quite some time now and its expanding online gambling market was listed as one of the big contributors.
Several other states have been trying to regulate online gambling over the past few years, but any progress they have accomplished may be marred by staunch opposition coming from powerful casino industry people as well as from their ally legislators.
Reports have recently emerged that Rep. Charlie Dent, a lawmaker whose name has long been associated with anti-online gambling efforts, would once again try to sneak the RAWA bill into the Congress.
Generally speaking, RAWA, or Restoration of America’s Wire Act, urges lawmakers to ban all forms of online gambling from being provided anywhere in the US. The piece of legislation, strongly supported by one of the richest people in the industry – Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson, has never made it to the Congress, although ambitious attempts have been made. And those attempts have been more than enough to cause quite a stir in the industry.
That stir was fueled further in early 2017 when Attorney General Jeff Sessions said during his confirmation hearing that he would revisit a 2011 Department of Justice decision to allow individual states legalize online gambling if there was enough support for that within their Legislatures. AG Sessions recused himself from a ruling on the matter earlier this month due to conflict of interest.
