New Jersey Residents Say Yes to Online Poker

Poker as a games does not yield that much revenue if compared to other table games in Atlantic City. However, industry experts state that when it comes to online gambling, poker is one of the most profitable.

Founder of U.S. Digital Gaming Richard Baskin says, “It is clear that poker will be the first major game (on the internet) and will lead everything else,”

“There’s just a huge market built for it because of all of the television that has happened in the last couple of years.”

The possibility that online poker might be legalized in the United States looks rosier by the day since the US Department of Justice had a change of heart with regard to the Federal Wire Act in December year. The DoJ said that it is up to individual states to impose the necessary laws within their borders that will not only regulate online poker but other casino games as well.

States such as Nevada and Delaware are thinking of legalizing online gambling. Senator Ray Lesniak introduced a new bill earlier this year that calls for the authorization of online gambling. It is up to Governor Chris Christie to sign the bill into regulation. Christie also vetoed Lesniak’s previous bill. According to Christie, Lesniak’s bill did not to curb underage gambling and online gambling halls were popping up like mushrooms all over the state.

Poker is without a doubt the most popular card game in the United States. The reason for this is the last two decades many poker tournaments were televised, as a result many poker players became instant celebrities. With the advent of  high-speed Internet, poker’s popularity more than quadrupled. The first winner ever to have qualified through an online poker site is Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker also won the prestigious World Series of Poker in 2003 in scintillating fashion.

Roger Gros a poker analyst from Atlantic City said, “It just exploded there for a time. “It went from virtually nothing to a huge part of the casino.”

Since the DoJ shut down the three major online poker sites last year (Black Friday) Internet poker’s popularity has dropped significantly. This prompted many American companies to focus on the rest of the world instead of the highly lucrative US market. That said, many industry observers reckon that New Jersey will be the first US state to regulate online gambling.

Baskin pointed out, “What’s happened is that the illegal activity has been shut down as much as possible in the U.S. They’re not playing so there’s a huge pent-up demand for legalization. They will come back to play on legal taxable sites.”

H2 Gambling a company based in the United Kingdom did a survey should online poker be allowed in New Jersey. According to its research in the first year alone gross wins, including rake and tournament entry fees, will be in excess of $142 million.

The above clearly indicates that if online poker is legalized in the United States it could be a billion dollar cash cow.