Ultimate Poker, the first legal, licensed online poker room to go live in Nevada, is making a push to become the first to go live in New Jersey. The Stations Casinos-owned site announced Monday that it has inked a deal with Trump Taj Mahal Associates LLC to offer real money online poker in the Garden State.
“Today we are excited to be entering into an agreement with Trump Taj Mahal Associates to bring online gaming to New Jersey,” said Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling in a statement. “This represents a huge step forward in our desire to offer Americans across the nation the opportunity to enjoy safe and regulated online games.”
In New Jersey, businesses licensed to offer brick-and-mortar gambling are also eligible to apply for an interactive gaming license. But because land-based casinos are generally not also in the online gaming business, most will find it necessary to partner with an online gaming provider. In the middle of June, the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) informed current casino licensees that they had until June 29th to forge those partnerships if they want to be on the inside track towards interactive licensing. Of course, there is no guarantee that just because a casino forms an alliance with an online operator that it will be licensed, but the DGE also said it could not guarantee timely approval to anyone who didn’t meet the deadline.
Ultimate Poker was the first intrastate online poker room to go live in Nevada under the current regulatory environment and so far is still the only one up and running. It launched on April 30 to great fanfare in the poker community and though it hit some speed bumps, including geolocaton issues with some cell phone providers and the controversy over its connection to iovation for identity verification services, it has done fairly well.
“We feel our technology is a major advantage,” said Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior. “Our proprietary software has been proven to meet regulatory requirements and allows for continuous investment and product development. The technology was acquired in 2011 and developed by a U.S. based company with a completely clean regulatory profile.”
Ultimate Poker will soon have competition in Nevada, as Caesars Entertainment is expected to launch a World Series of Poker-branded real money online poker site in the state this month. Poker players and fans have been bombarded with advertisements for WSOP.com at the Rio during the WSOP this summer.
No timeline has been put forth for Ultimate Poker’s New Jersey launch, but the state has set a launch date of November 16th for intrastate online gambling, which includes all forms of gambling allowed in New Jersey casinos, not just poker. Online gambling in New Jersey will be of the intrastate variety, meaning that all players must be located within the borders of the state, though they do not need to actually be residents. New Jersey’s online gaming law does allow for interstate compacts. Since Ultimate Poker will soon operate in both New Jersey (pending Trump Taj Mahal’s license approval) and Nevada, there will naturally be the hope that the two states would team up and Ultimate Poker (as well as other future sites) could have a larger player pool. There is no word on whether or not this will happen, though. Some skeptics doubt the two states will form a compact, pointing to their competitive rivalry.
