Online gambling has been in the news this week, but not for the reasons they would have liked. First, three Atlantic City casinos are having to pay fines to the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement after allowing underaged gamblers to wager live and excluded gamblers to place bets online..
Meanwhile, the Golden Nugget has officially abandoned plans for online poker in New Jersey following an announcement that they will be closing their free play online poker site effective September 30.
Three Atlantic City Casinos Fined for iGaming Violations
The Press of Atlantic City announced on Monday that three AC casinos have been fined for gaming violations. According to the report, the three casinos will pay $14,000 for 117 violations.
Resorts Casino Hotel received a fine of $7,200 for allowing 10 self-excluded gamblers to bet online. Members of New Jersey’s self-exclusion list are not permitted to wager either online or inside NJ casinos. In a filing from the DGE last week, the violations were the result of a computer programming error.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa received a fine of $5,000 for allowing 66 underage gamblers to play table games and slot machines between 2011 and 2015. The legal gambling age in Atlantic City is 21.
Tropicana was fined $2,200 for 41 instances of allowing underage gamblers to wager at their casino between 2013 and 2015. None of the casinos contested the fines.
The Resorts fine is a prime example of how regulation works. An online operator committed an infraction and they were punished for said infractions. Resorts will diligently work to correct any issues brought up by regulators or face further sanctions up to the loss of their operator’s license.
Golden Nugget to Shut Down Play Money Site on September 30
Golden Nugget announced on Monday that they will cease operations for their free-play online poker site effective September 30. An email was sent to all players at the site encouraging them to convert any points earned into comps prior to the closure.
The shutdown of Golden Nugget’s free-play online poker site is not surprising since they have failed to move forward with real-money operations. When iGaming was launched in 2013, Golden Nugget’s launch was delayed several weeks.
Initially, the site had intended to share player pools with Betfair Poker NJ but traffic at that site was non-existent. This may have played into the decision by Golden Nugget to abandon their real-money online poker site.
Betfair Poker NJ ceased operation in 2014 and operations for their online casino were later moved to Golden Nugget. The play-money platform was operated on Ongame software through Bally Technologies but Golden Nugget switched to NYX Gaming as their primary gaming vendor in July. This was effectively the death knell for the free-play site.
Despite the shift in gaming vendors, this move was not unexpected by Golden Nugget. At present, New Jersey can really only support four online poker sites and PokerStars is still seeking approval. Real-money online poker with Golden Nugget would have struggled to gain market share and likely would been a losing proposition for the company. They chose the wise course of action and focused on casino games.
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