Real money online casino PalaCasino.com released its mobile app last week, allowing customers in New Jersey to gamble online without being tethered to a computer. Available for both Android and Apple, the app allows players to do essentially everything they can from the desktop software.
The PalaCasino app offers access to nearly 30 casino games, including roulette, craps, blackjack, and video poker. This is a real money gambling app, so players can also use it to make deposits and manage their accounts.
“As mobile devices become more and more integral in our user’s everyday lives, we are excited to launch an app that provides virtual gaming access to our valued players throughout New Jersey, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” said Pala Interactive CEO Jim Ryan in a statement. “With the introduction of our app and a commitment to continue developing additional games, we have a tremendous opportunity to build stronger relationships with our customers.”
PalaCasino is the product of a partnership between Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and Pala Interactive LLC, a company created by California’s Pala Band of Mission Indians. The partnership was given conditional approval by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement in November 2014, marking the first time a Native American tribe had been licensed for internet gaming in the United States (the license has since advanced past the “conditional” stage).
When Pala Interactive was formed and then subsequently partnered with Borgata, there were some concerns in the industry about who was leading the charge. Jim Ryan is the former CEO of PartyGaming and then co-CEO of bwin.party after bwin and PartyGaming merged, which would go a long way to explaining the relationship between Pala and Borgata (Borgata partnered with bwin.party to offer online gambling New Jersey). He was also, though, CEO of Excapsa, parent company of the infamous UltimateBet. There are rumors that when he wanted to jump from Excapsa to Party, a non-compete clause stood in his way. I will now quote myself from a previous article:
After the superuser cheating scandal, Ryan allegedly got a list of ownership proxies released (the actual ownership structure of the company was VERY secretive) and allegedly had even more damning documentation related to the cheating scandal. He used this as leverage to skirt the non-compete and head over to PartyGaming. Ryan himself was never tied to any of the cheating.
Pala Interactive has not yet launched a poker product in New Jersey. In a March interview with CalvinAyre.com, Jim Ryan said that it was putting off poker essentially because the company didn’t think it could compete yet.
“We put that on hold because we do expect PokerStars to enter the market, not that we would have grabbed a significant share because there are two very credible poker networks operating in the states of New Jersey at this point in time, liquidity is obviously a challenge, we’ve seen one poker network already exit the marketplace,” he said.
The New Jersey online poker market is currently dominated by two networks: the Party Borgata network and 888/WSOP. PokerStars has yet to be licensed, but its approval is always seemingly around the corner.
