Sports Betting in New Jersey

The state of New Jersey has come a long way when it comes to online gambling. After endless struggles with the law, the state was able to petition the Supreme Court to overturn the decades-long ban on sports betting.

Both online sports betting and offline sports betting activities are legal in the state of New Jersey. For the longest time, sports betting was illegal nationwide. But, NJ legislators and lobbyists petitions the federal government to repeal the law that resulted in the lifting of the ban in May 2018 by the supreme court. The law that was overturned is the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, PASPA. PASPA prohibited sports betting in all states, except the state of Nevada. So, when the ban was overturned, it represented a big win for NJ – the state started its challenge against PASPA at the beginning of 2012.

Following the Supreme Court’s Ruling, sports betting (online and offline) was legalized.

As a huge sport betting fan, you’re aware that sports betting did not kick off until one month after the legalization. The reason for the delay, mid the big win resulted from the need to pass another law with provisions for licensing and regulation. This was the secondary law which called for the passing of emergency regulations, as well as the expedited release of the temporary licenses allowing the first venues to take sports wagers from the 14th of June 2018. On the same day, the first legal sports wager was placed by Gov. Phil Murphy at the racetrack in Monmouth Park.

Draftkings Sportbook, Sugarhouse Sportbook, PlayMGM Sportsbook, William Hill Sportsbook, Fan Duel Sportsbook, and Caesars Casino Sportbook are the leading NJ online sports betting sportsbooks.

Online Casino NJ

New Jersey is currently one of only three states that have legalized online casinos, the state of New Jersey has a lot to celebrate. Wondering what else you don’t know about NJ?

Well, in 2013 (February 26th), the then governor, and renowned legislator Chris Christie signed into law A2578, the bill that legalized online casinos and online poker in the state. The bill received significant support from both chambers of the legislature, passing by 35-1 in the Senate and 68-5 in the Assembly.

After the passing of this bill, a 5-day test was run on online casinos from November 21st to November 26th, 2013. You should know, that the only companies allowed to run the online gambling operations within the state are the Atlantic City Casino owners. That means that the owners of Atlantic City’s land-based casinos: Caesars, Resorts, Borgata, and Harrah’s.

The other unique bit of the New Jersey online casino industry is the bit where taxes are charged at a rate of 15 percent of the gross collected revenue from gaming activities: a figure that is double the rate of taxes charged for the land-based Atlantic City casinos. But, that is not all, all the online casinos within the state must reinvest 1.25 percent of their online gaming revenue in the land-based casinos. By ensuring that the online casinos reinvest in the brick and mortar casinos, the state protects the land-based casinos from fizzling out, and it creates jobs, further benefiting and improving the economic status of the state.

Also on legislation is the fact that the online casinos must have all their gaming servers within Atlantic City. The New Jersey constitution prohibits the running of online (and offline) gambling activities out of Atlantic City. This stems from the fact that online and offline casino gambling is illegal in most of the states and outside Atlantic City.

On the same note, residency is not a regulation and visitors can play at the regulated casinos within the state. Also, you are allowed to set up your online casino account and manage all your banking-related activities anywhere in the US.

Reasons for the Strict Regulations

First, by passing strict regulatory measures, the state can generate a good amount of money in tax revenue.

Next, the regulations are set to ensure that online casinos fully support land-based casinos. This is especially because the rise of online casinos has left the offline casinos bearing the brunt. Most of the land-based casinos have been hard hit. By 2016, these offline casinos had suffered a 50 per cent hit in revenue, compared to the numbers recorded in 2006.

Finally, the regulations provide customers from all the parts of the country with a safe and highly secure online gambling environment. Top online casinos in New Jersey are highly regulated, and they have to meet a specific set of requirements for their licensing. Also, the operational online casinos in NJ have their games tested using cutting-edge labs and technologies by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Besides the regulations, you might also want to play online games in the online NJ casinos because their games have better odds, you get access to a wider variety of games at significantly low limits, and, the online gaming scene is safe.

The other important bit to mention on the regulation of the casino industry in NJ is the fact that bettors should be 21 years or older.

The online gambling landscape in NJ lets you enjoy online sports betting, online poker, daily fantasy sports, and other online casino games. These are all active and legal.

Leading online casinos in New Jersey

The licensed online casinos within Atlantic City include:

1. Caesars Atlantic City

It has to be the most popular online casinos in NJ and the rest of the United States. And the best part is that it lives up to its name. By coupling up with 888 and GVC Holdings for some of Caesars’ properties, Caesars Interactive Entertainment has become of the leading and highly recommended online casinos in the US. 888 casino has vast experience in online gambling having been in the industry from the 90S. The success of 888 comes from the fact that it offered international betting services for the longest time. The company also boasts an excellent track record, and it provides the best gaming experience.

The other casinos that run under Caesars’ Licensing include Harrah’s Casino, Caesars Casino, and 888 casinos.

888 Poker and WSOP represent the online poker sits which run under the licensing of Caesars.

Note: GVC Holdings, formerly Amaya Gaming got approval to host real money games in 2015 for NJ residents.  This happened after a 2-year delay relating to PokerStars and Full Tilt both of which accepted bets from players outside the US, even after the passing of UIGEA. They received the go-ahead in December 2015 with PokerStars going live in 2016 in NJ at PokerStarsNJ.com.

2. Resorts Casino Hotel

The popular Resorts Casino Hotel runs two reputable casinos (Resorts Casino and Mohegan Sun) launched in 2015 and both powered by NYX Gaming. It also operates an online poker site (PokerStars NJ) which is powered by PokerStars, the International Poker giant. The poker sites went live in 2016.  PokerStars NJ is the most popular New Jersey poker site.

3. Golden Nugget Atlantic City

To bring you the best of online casinos in Atlantic City, the Golden Nugget partnered with Betfair, bringing you the best of online casino sites as well an online poker room.

The Golden Nugget’s partnership with Betfair came after Betfair’s partnership with Trump Plaza ended in 2014 when this company under the Trump Name closed. After the closure, Betfair switched its alliance to Golden Nugget.

In case you are wondering, Betfair is a big name in the online casino world, and it boasts a positive and long history in the UK. It’s also served more than 95 000 players from around the world.

So, the partnership makes these two companies ideal and very capable of hosting highly engaging and fair games in Atlantic City.

The casinos that operate under the license given to the Golden Nugget include the Golden Nugget Casino, Sugarhouse Online Casino, and Betfair Casino.

4. Tropicana Casino and Resort

After teaming up with Gamesys, a renowned London-based software provider, Tropicana has an online casino and online poker licensing from NJ DGE. Gamesys has developed some of the most robust online poker and casino software which are used by the world’s leading gambling brands. Wondering what makes Gamesys software stand out from the rest? Well, other than the ease of use, the platforms are lighthearted, bright, and super flashy.

Tropicana’s licensed casinos include Tropicana Casino and the Virgin Casino.

5. Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa

To provide the best online gambling services, Borgata partnered with GVC Holdings. Now, GVC Holdings is the company that runs operations in the international gaming and gambling sites like Party and Bwin, among others.

The online casinos that run under the Borgata license include Borgata Casino, Pala Casino, Scores Casino, Party Casino, and MGM Casino.

Borgata boosts online poker sites as well. The poker sites include Borgata, Pala, Party, and MGM poker sites. And if you think that Bingo is more your style, you might want to try out Borgata’s Pala Bingo.

6. Ocean Resort Casino

The Ocean casino is Atlantic City’s newest casinos having launched its operations in June of 2018.  The launch took place after the casino owners took ownership of the Revel Casino building which was shuttered and overhauled it to the beautiful Ocean Resort Casino. This newly licensed casino has one casino under its name, the Ocean Online Casino.

7. Hard Rock Casino

Also, a new casino to open in Atlantic City, Hard Rock Casino boasts a robust collection of games including table games, video poker, and slots. The games are powered by NextGen, IGT, NYX, and NetEnt among others. The online casino is Hard Rock Online Casino.

Interstate Online Poker

As mentioned above, online casinos allow players from within the state of New Jersey only – they have geolocators which can track your actual location. The casinos will check your IP address then position your wireless connection, and if you are accessing a casino using your smartphone, they will triangulate the phone’s location. Yes, they get to do that! But the case is different when it comes to online poker. The state of NJ passed a law that no longer restricts playing online poker to NJ. You can play with and against players from other states thanks to the agreement made between Gov. Chris Christie with the governors of the state of Nevada and Delaware. Note that this means that online poker is only legal interstate between the three states where online casinos are legal. So, you get to play on the same table with players from these other states.

Horse Racing Betting

If you are a horse racing betting fan, you will be delighted to learn that both online and real-world betting on horse racing is legal in the Garden State.  The only catch is that you can only bet in specific locations. In the race track, you get to place your bets in any of the three racetracks in NJ or the handful of the licensed off-track betting operators (OTBs). Online racing betting is acceptable in only one authorized horse racing website, the 4NJBets.com.

The New Jersey Racing Commission oversees all the horse racing and betting activities. This is the commission that issues licenses, keeps the horses safe, conducts investigations, and enhances the integrity of the horse racing betting industry.

Note that horse racing in NJ takes place in the pari-mutuel betting meaning that you will be betting against the other players and not against the horses. This betting style applies to the offline bets too.

Note that 4NJBets is run by the TVG, the national horse racing entertainment brand.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Most states have legalized daily fantasy sports (DFS) betting. In New Jersey received its legal status in 2017. However, DFS was operational in NJ before the legalization. Following the legalization, regulations and licensing details were set in motion. The DFS laws include the setting of the minimum of age for players to 18, as well as the requirement for the DFS sites to keep the player funds separated from the funds for running betting operations. The laws further stipulate that NJ DFS employees cannot participate in the betting on DFS. The law also put in place responsible gambling laws.